From Waste to Traffic Fuel (W-Fuel)

This report details the 'From Waste to Traffic Fuel' (W-Fuel) project, which investigated the sustainable production of biogas and its upgrading to biomethane for use as transport fuel in two Estonian counties: Harju and Lääne-Viru. The study compared the environmental and economic impacts of using biogas for combined heat and power (CHP) versus upgrading it to vehicle fuel, while also proposing waste prevention strategies for biowaste and sludge.

• The W-Fuel project identified that producing biomethane for transport fuel is more socially beneficial than producing electricity and heat from biogas, although the latter is more commercially profitable due to lower investment costs and existing feed-in tariffs.
• Environmental impact assessments for biogas use are highly sensitive to the baseline electricity source. Replacing the average Estonian electricity mix (which was 87% oil shale in 2020) with biogas yields higher emission savings than using biomethane as transport fuel; however, if biogas replaces marginal electricity from natural gas, transport fuel becomes the better environmental option.
• When the EU Emissions Trading Scheme (EU-ETS) is considered, biomethane for transport fuel provides greater environmental improvement than biogas for electricity, regardless of whether the electricity replaced is average or marginal, because EU-ETS caps total emissions and may simply redistribute them.
• In Harju County, the Hinnu pig farm was selected as a pilot site. A proposed plant using pig slurry, slaughter waste, and energy crops could produce approximately 1.3 million m3 of biomethane annually, which could fuel roughly 1,200 cars or 135 heavy vehicles.
• In Lääne-Viru County, the Rakvere suburb was identified as an ideal location for a pilot plant due to the proximity of three major waste producers: Rakvere Meat Processing Plant, Estonian Spirit distillery, and Rakvere Vesi wastewater treatment facility. A proposed plant there could produce over 4 million Nm3 of biogas annually.
• The report recommends specific upgrading technologies based on plant size: water scrubbing was chosen for the Hinnu pilot plant due to its viability for smaller flows and the availability of process water from a nearby sewage plant, while amino wash was selected for the Rakvere plant to achieve high methane purity (>99%) and very low methane losses (<0.1%).
• Food waste prevention in Harju County could lead to significant savings by 2020: an optimistic target (Option B3) of reducing biowaste by 30% compared to 2008 levels could save 126,591 tCO2-eq and 122 million euros.
• In Lääne-Viru County, food waste prevention targets (Option B3) could save between 17,471 tCO2-eq and 17 million euros by 2020.
• The report notes that Estonia's transport sector share of renewable energy remained negligible as of 2010 (8 ktoe), far below the target of 90–100 ktoe required to meet EU Directive 2009/28/EC targets for 2020.

APA

Kask, Ü., Andrijevskaja, J., Kask, L., Heinla, P., Hüüs, M., Kallaste, T., Laur, A., Menert, A., Pädam, S., Rasi, S., Heino, E., Ahonen, S., Marttinen, S., Aro-Heinilä, E., & Teerioja, N. (n.d.). From Waste to Traffic Fuel (W-Fuel). Stockholm Environment Institute. https://www.sei.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/4432.pdf

Chicago

Kask, Ülo, Janita Andrijevskaja, Livia Kask, Priit Heinla, Meeli Hüüs, Tiit Kallaste, Anton Laur, et al. From Waste to Traffic Fuel (W-Fuel). Stockholm Environment Institute, n.d. https://www.sei.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/4432.pdf.

Wikipedia

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BibTeX

@techreport{kaskndfrom, author = {Kask, Ülo and Andrijevskaja, Janita and Kask, Livia and Heinla, Priit and Hüüs, Meeli and Kallaste, Tiit and Laur, Anton and Menert, Anne and Pädam, Sirje and Rasi, Saija and Heino, Erja and Ahonen, Saana and Marttinen, Sanna and Aro-Heinilä, Esa and Teerioja, Nea}, title = {{From Waste to Traffic Fuel (W-Fuel)}}, institution = {Stockholm Environment Institute}, url = {https://www.sei.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/4432.pdf}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }