The Potential of Biofuels Corridors on the Trans-European Transport Network Roads

The European Union (EU) transport sector and its policymakers are presently being confronted with two crises: fossil-fuel dependency and environmental degradation. The EU has introduced the two Directives 2003/30/EC and 2009/28/EC to increase the sustainability of the transport sector in relation to these issues. The directives require Member States (MSs) to set targets for the share of renewable energy in transport which is to replace petroleum-based fuels, and thus help to reach the mandatory level of ten percent by 2020. Biofuels are considered to be the most viable option to meet these targets. This research outlines the issues to be tackled when considering increases in biofuel usage and examines a potential scheme with the objective of achieving an increase in the use of biofuels in the road transport sector; the development of EU biofuels corridors. An EU biofuels corridor is defined as a long-distance and cross-border route on the Trans-European Transport (TEN-T) Network roads on which blends with a high biofuel content (referred to as high-blends) are offered regularly along the entire length of the route.TILTransport, Infrastructure and LogisticsDelft University of Technolog