Production and consumption of bioethanol in Switzerland

 

In Switzerland, the Swiss Alcohol Board through its profit centre (Alcosuisse) sells each year approximately 40 Ml of ethanol, of which more three-quarters are used as chemical and/or technical alcohol. Drinking alcohol and brandy hardly represent 10% of total sales. The Swiss production covers about one third of Alcosuisse ethanol needs, the rest being imported from various producing countries, particularly Brazil, South Africa and the USA. The countries of Eastern Europe and some EU countries also play a role in supplying the Swiss market.

Since 2000, Alcosuisse is also interested in the market of fuel-bioethanol. In order to develop the production and use of bioethanol in Switzerland, Alcosuisse initiated the etha+ project, with the aim of incorporating bioethanol in vehicle fuels.

Within the etha+ project, Alcosuisse envisages the construction of a first ethanol plant in Switzerland (with a capacity of 50 Ml/year). This facility, referred to as "multi-feedstock bioewthanol plant" would be able to produce fuel-bioethanol from various raw materials (incl. potatoes, sugarbeet molasses, cereals), depending on the season and availability. The figure below presents the concept of the multi-feedstock bioethanol plant as envisioned by Alcosuisse.

To date, the project is on stand-by because of ilmited availability of feedstocks and for economic reasons.

Figure : The multi-feedstock bioethanol plant project

More recently, Alcosuisse has been evaluating a new project concerning the construction of a dehydration plant for the production of fuel-bioethanol (99.7% wt.) from hydrous ethanol (92.5% wt.). Initially considered as an alternative to the domestic production of bioethanol, the dehydration plant has gained interest for the following reasons:

• it is a solution to the increasing scarcity of anhydrous bioethanol on the market;
• it is a relevant alternative to the transoceanic transport of anhydrous ethanol on a global scale, much more demanding from a technological point of view than that of hydrous ethanol, given the expected specifications regarding water content in the fuel-bioethanol standard (pr EN 15376);
• the implementation of decentralized bioethanol production, in the form of small-to-medium capacity units, would be ideally complemented by a large-scale centralized rectification and dehydration facility.

The technology used in this project is the dehydration by pervaporation [1]. The production capacity amounts to 160 Ml/year (i.e. 126'400 t/yr) of fuel-bioethanol (see figure below). The facility could be built on the site of Alcosuisse in Delémont (JU), in order to optimize the use of infrastructure. If the project were to be realized, production could start as early as 2010.

Figure : The bioethanol dehydration plant project

Fuel-ethanol from the dehydration plant alone represents the equivalent of 3.5% vol. of gasoline consumption in Switzerland.

Among the projects concerned with bioethanol production, one should mention the Betalcool project from ADER (Association for the development of renewable energy). This project aims at producing bioethanol from sugarbeets from Swiss agriculture. The process envisages the direct fermentation of crushed sugarbeets without the washing step (thus avoiding the processing of large volumes of liquid effluent in a wastewater treatment plant) and without going through the conventional highly energy consuming sugar process. This innovative process aims at developing bioethanol production with minimum energy use. Although the project has already been developed for several years, it has not yet reached the stage of a concrete realization.

Until 2008, Borregaard Schweiz (formerly Cellulose Atisholz) was the only producer and supplier of fuel-bioethanol in Switzerland. In November 2008, however, the production plant of Borregaard in Riedholz (SO) closed down [2]. The ethanol from Borregaard (about 12 Ml/yr, all uses combined) was derived from the production of paper pulp from wood cellulose [3]. If bioethanol from Borregaard was indeed produced from a cellulosic feedstock, this process did not however akin to so-called "second generation" bioethanol pathways, based on enzymatic hydrolysis of raw materials. Although Borregaard could produce around 12 Ml of ethanol annually, the production capacity of fuel-ethanol was however limited by the capacity of the dehydration unit (the final step necessary to achieve the specifications required for fuel-ethanol). In practice, Borregaard could provide a maximum of 3 Ml/year of fuel-bioethanol to Alcosuisse.

The closing down of Borregaard obliged Alcosuisse to find new fuel-ethanol suppliers, in a context now subject to the requirements of the new Mineral Oil Tax Ordinance (MinOTO). In a press release dated 2 March 2009 [4], Alcosuisse announced they had found a supplier in Sweden (SEKAB), which would guarantee the supply of fuel-bioethanol in Switzerland. The two parties concluded a first delivery contract covering 500'000 litres of fuel-bioethanol produced from wood waste. The first lots were imported in March 2009. The Swedish bioethanol is produced by a process almost identical to the one Borregaard Schweiz employed, and meets the minimum ecological and social requirements as defined in the MinOTO. The Swiss federal authorities have confirmed this by guaranteeing an exemption from the tax on mineral oils until 2013 for the bioethanol supplied by SEKAB.

Thanks to the supply of bioethanol from Sweden, the 180 or so service stations in Switzerland currently offering blends of gasoline and bioethanol will continue to be supplied with quality fuel-bioethanol. The supply is hence guaranteed until late 2009. According to Alcosuisse, the question of whether this contract shall mark the beginning of a long collaboration with SEKAB remains open.

In 2008, Alcosuisse placed about 25% of the production of Borregaard Schweiz (i.e. about 3.3 Ml) on the vehicle fuel market. The closing down of Borregaard's production facility in Riedholz (SO) in November 2008, however, forced Alcosuisse to find new suppliers of fuel-bioethanol, in a context now subject to the requirements of the new MinOTO. It is fuel-bioethanol produced from wood waste (using a process very similar to the one Borregaard Schweiz employed) by the companies SEKAB in Sweden and Borregaard in Norway which today provides the supply in Switzerland. In compliance with the minimum ecological and social requirements according to the MinOTO, this bioethanol benefits from the tax exemption since March 2009 and until 2013.

The diagram below shows the consumption of fuel-bioethanol in Switzerland over the period 1999-2009. The data is taken from the statistics of the Swiss Federal Customs Administration [5], which makes a census of the quantities of biofuels placed on the market every year in the frame of the Mineral Oil Tax Law.