2022-12-21 08:00:00
When CO2 emissions in transport are discussed, the main focus is on cars, airplanes and shipping. The many machines in agriculture and forestry as well as in construction are mostly forgotten. Around five percent of the total diesel consumption in Germany, that is 1.8 to two billion liters per year, is due to the cultivation of fields and forests. The German Farmers’ Association speaks of around five million tons of CO2 that are emitted as a result. In contrast to the car and, increasingly, the truck sector, only a small number of vehicles can be electrified due to the heavy workload, emphasizes Udo Hemmerling, Deputy DBV General Secretary.
Unlike private transport, agriculture is not only part of the problem, but also part of the solution. The industry platform “Biofuels in Agriculture and Forestry” was founded six years ago, to which three agricultural machinery manufacturers belong, in addition to the Farmers’ Association, the Federal Bioenergy Association and other organizations. According to Hemmerling, only 450,000 hectares of cultivable land would be needed to meet the energy requirements of machines in agriculture and forestry with a fifty-fifty mix of biomethane and biodiesel or vegetable oil. That is just over two and a half percent of the total area. For historical comparison: around 100 years ago, according to him, 15 to 20 percent of the arable land was only used to feed draft animals.
According to Stephan Arens, Managing Director of the Union for the Promotion of Oil and Protein Plants (UFOP), electrification is only an option in agriculture and forestry for vehicles with poor performance or autonomously driving machines. Natural gas and biomethane might be used in the medium power range, biodiesel and fuels from residual and waste materials in the medium to heavy segments. The first approaches in industry are already there. New Holland already has a biomethane tractor on offer and just introduced a prototype LPG tractor, and John Deere has developed a multi-fuel tractor.
Arens explains the current potential, even existing agricultural and forestry machines can be partially converted or operated with organic admixtures. The industry is demanding clear commitments and appropriate funding programs from the federal government, because it ultimately also sets the goals politically. According to Stephan Arens, there are double standards. He cites studies according to which, with the current energy mix, a wrong kilowatt hour causes more than 400 grams of CO2, but last year alone electromobility in Germany was subsidized with almost six billion euros. Arens calculates that the annual savings of around 50,000 tons of CO2 from new e-cars would be offset by eleven million tons from the use of biofuels. (aum/jri)
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