The biorefining of cereal grains offers a compelling solution that can help Europe meet the challenges of climate change, energy insecurity and economic slowdown.

Ensus has ensured that there is a sound technical foundation for the role of biorefining, which meets four key tests:

1. Fuel carbon footprint
Ensus bioethanol generates around 70% greenhouse gas (GHG) savings compared to petrol, well ahead of UK Renewable Transport Fuel Obligation (RTFO) and Renewable Energy Directive (RED) qualifying criteria and comparable to best-in-class.

2. Impact on food supply
The Ensus biorefining process refines wheat to high protein animal feed as well as fuel. This reduces the EU dependence on imported soy making more effective use of our land resource to meet EU demand for animal feed. Ensus animal feed also generates substantial greenhouse gas savings compared to the soy meal and other animal feed ingredients it replaces on a nutritionally equivalent basis. These GHG savings effectively double the savings generated from Ensus bioethanol.

3. Impact on land use
By reducing soy imports Ensus reduces deforestation pressures in South America and reduces global emissions from land use change. The EU has enough spare capacity for sustainable agriculture to meet 2020 biofuel targets without encroaching on high carbon stock forest and pastureland.

4. Renewable energy economics
The cost impact of different renewable energy options is coming under increasing scrutiny. Transport biofuels are one of least-cost sources of renewable energy to meet UK targets, and the Ensus biorefinery scale economics are industry-leading. Further GHG savings are achieved in the food supply chain from reducing the use of imported soy at no additional cost.

Fuel carbon footprint

Ensus bioethanol generates around 70% greenhouse gas (GHG) savings compared to petrol, well ahead of UK Renewable Transport Fuel Obligation (RTFO) and Renewable Energy Directive (RED) qualifying criteria and comparable to best-in-class.

UK and EU biofuel targets for 2020 are very demanding. RED requires that the target of 10% renewable energy in transport is met by truly sustainable means. RTFO already includes strict carbon and sustainability reporting requirements.

The Ensus biorefinery scale and process design was conceived to deliver industry-leading carbon and sustainability performance. Low carbon process energy is sourced from a site-integrated combined heat and power (CHP) plant. Advanced plant technology and design recycles heat within the process to reduce overall energy requirements. Careful management of the agricultural supply chain seeks to minimise emissions from agricultural processes during feedstock production.

Together, these measures mean that Ensus biofuel delivers carbon savings of around 70%, comfortably ahead of the 35% savings threshold required by the RED.

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Impact on food supply

The Ensus biorefining process refines surplus wheat to high protein animal feed as well as fuel. This reduces EU dependence on imported soy making more effective use of our land resource to meet EU demand for animal feed. Ensus animal feed generates substantial greenhouse gas savings compared to the soy meal and other animal feed ingredients it replaces, after factoring in the impact on global land use.

Food chain GHG emissions are a growing area of concern, both in the UK and EU. Meat production accounts for a fifth of global GHG emissions, and a large proportion of these emissions are linked to the global land requirement for animal feed production – over half of all grain and bean crops are used for animal feed. When forest or grassland is cleared for agriculture, organic matter in plants and soil is released as greenhouse gases. Just three countries account for over 60% of global land use change emissions: Indonesia, Malaysia and Brazil. In Brazil and elsewhere in South America, soy monoculture contributes to land use pressure that leads to deforestation, and has expanded rapidly in recent years.

Cereal grains are used for animal feed, but higher protein ingredients such as soy meal are also needed. The EU produces less than 30% of the high protein animal feed it needs and is the world’s largest importer of these feed ingredients. Soy meal, mainly from South America, represents three quarters of EU high protein animal feed imports and each year the EU imports well over 30 million tonnes to support its meat, dairy and egg production.

Wheat and maize are ideally suited to Europe’s temperate climate, and are highly efficient crops that are produced in surplus. However, due to high starch levels in the grain, protein concentration in feed wheat is typically just 10% - far below the 30-40% that would be needed to substitute for soy meal in the compound animal feed industry.

Biorefining surplus EU wheat converts excess starch to ethanol, to produce a high-protein animal feed that can replace soy meal in animal rations. By reducing the amount of land that is needed for imported soy, biorefining EU wheat reduces deforestation pressures in South America. As a result, animal feed produced by Ensus generates substantial greenhouse gas savings compared to the soy meal and other animal feed ingredients replaces on a nutritionally equivalent basis.

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Impact on land use

By reducing soy imports Ensus reduces deforestation pressures in South America and reduces global emissions from land use change. The EU has enough spare capacity for sustainable agriculture to meet 2020 biofuel targets without encroaching on high carbon stock forest and pastureland.

The EU’s rising demand for animal feed protein has been a major driver of soy expansion over the past decade. Soy bean production for EU imports now occupies around 19m hectares of land, nearly 90% of which is in South America. Land use for soy adds to deforestation pressures in the main exporting countries – Brazil, Argentina and Paraguay.

Ensus analysis shows that animal feed wheat refining in Europe is a far more effective use of land than soy production to help meet the world’s rising food and fuel needs. Feed wheat can produce as much protein per hectare as soy and is more suited to temperate climates where there is a surplus of existing agricultural land. In addition, wheat converts twice as much of the sun’s energy to plant energy, storing the excess as starch which is readily converted to biofuel. Wheat production does not contribute to pressure on land use in the tropics where non-arable grassland and rainforest typically hold a very high carbon stock.

The EU can meet a 10% bioethanol target and meet food demand in 2020 within its current arable land area, with yield increases delivering most of the additional feed wheat output. Eastern Europe offers very significant potential for yield gains as modern agricultural practices and investments are rolled out, as has been demonstrated already in the modernization of agriculture in East Germany since reunification in 1990.

In addition, 3-4Mha of set-aside and historic agricultural land will be brought back into production. Again, a large proportion of this idle land resource resides in Eastern Europe. This output growth is achievable from the EU’s current arable land area without adverse indirect effects:

• No reduction in EU wheat stocks, with implications for wheat/food price
• No impact on Europe’s high carbon stock forest and pastureland
• No reduction in the average historic level of wheat exports

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Renewable energy economics

The cost impact of different renewable energy options is coming under increasing scrutiny. Transport biofuels are one of least-cost sources of renewable energy to meet UK targets, and the Ensus biorefinery scale economics are industry-leading. Further GHG savings are achieved in the food supply chain from reducing the use of imported soy at no additional cost.

To provide an effective tool to combat climate change, a biofuel must offer value for money, delivering more GHG savings per unit cost than the alternatives.

After factoring in the additional greenhouse gas savings from Ensus animal feed, the overall GHG savings from feed wheat refining provide one of the most cost effective routes to cutting CO₂ emissions. Feed wheat refining can help cut CO₂ emissions less expensively than many power generation alternatives, including biomass energy crops.

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Process development