Authors
Claret, Ariadna; Escamilla, Marta
Abstract
Fuel production from renewable resources has received attention during the recent years. Moving away from the gasoline or diesel-powered internal combustion engines for road vehicles to other technologies may help to overcome climate change and city pollution. The ToSynFuel project addresses these challenges, by building-up, operating and demonstrating the production of synthetic fuels and green hydrogen from organic waste biomass, mainly sewage sludge, for transport, through a new integrated process. Before introducing into the market the ToSynFuel’s technology/products, an evaluation of the perception, impacts and benefits that these innovations could bring to the society is needed. Therefore, a Social Life Cycle Assessment (S-LCA) is being performed onto the project, by applying the Guidelines for S-LCA of products and organizations 2020 (UNEP-SETAC). Till now, 7 stakeholder groups have been defined: workers, supply-chain providers, fuel producers, consumers, policy makers, scientific community, local community and society. A deeply analysis of the consumer group have been performed, to know their perception of sustainable synthetic fuels. An online survey was conducted during summer 2020 to have data for analysis. 241 respondents were completed the survey. The surveys analysis reveals that main part of respondents believe that synthetic fuels could replace conventional fuels in the future, bringing improvements in climate change mitigation and job creation. 92% of potential consumers opined that synthetic fuels derived from waste from biomass are more environmentally and socially sustainable than conventional. 93% of potential consumers are willing to use synthetic fuels in its vehicle and 73% are willing to pay more for a more environmentally and socially sustainable fuel. Finally, potential consumers opined that main problems of synthetic fuels to reach the market implementation is the lack of policy adequacy to solve the current barriers to implement its use