To make battery electric vehicles (BEVs) energetically, environmentally and economically competitive to internal combustion engine vehicles (ICEVs), the development of battery technology plays a key role. In this study, an overview is made of battery technologies that are now available for application in BEVs or are currently researched, developed or demonstrated. For five selected battery technologies, projections are made on the battery performance and cost in the short (2015), medium (2025) and long term (> 2025). Driving cycle simulations are carried out to assess how the battery characteristics will influence the energetic, environmental and economic performance of electric cars in the medium term. The well-to-wheel (WTW) energy consumption and emissions are lowest for Li-ion batteries; 314-374 Wh/km and 76-90 gCO 2 eq/km (assuming 593 gCO 2 /kWh for European electricity mix), compared to 450-760 Wh/km and 150-170 gCO 2 eq/km for reference ICEVs. Low efficiencies of metal-air batteries result in the highest WTW energy consumption and emissions levels: 425 Wh/km and 103 gCO 2 eq/km or higher. The total driving costs are lowest for ZEBRA batteries (0.

The increasing production of modern bioenergy carriers and biomaterials intensifies the competition for different applications of biomass. To be able to optimize and develop biomass utilization in a sustainable way, this paper first reviews the status and prospects of biomass value chains for heat, power, fuels and materials, next assesses their current and long-term levelized production costs and avoided emissions, and then compares their greenhouse gas abatement costs. At present, the economically and environmentally preferred options are wood chip and pellet combustion in district heating systems and large-scale cofiring power plants (75-81 US$ 2005 /tCO 2 -eq avoided ), and large-scale fermentation of low cost Brazilian sugarcane to ethanol (-65 to -53 $/tCO 2 -eq avoided ) or biomaterials (-60 to -50 $/tCO 2 -eq avoided for ethylene and -320 to -228 $/tCO 2 -eq avoided for PLA; negative costs represent cost effective options). In the longer term, the cultivation and use of lignocellulosic energy crops can play an important role in reducing the costs and improving the emission balance of biomass value chains. Key conversion technologies for lignocellulosic biomass are large-scale gasification (bioenergy and biomaterials) and fermentation (biofuels and biomaterials). However, both routes require improvement of their technological and economic performance. Further improvements can be attained by biorefineries that integrate different conversion technologies to maximize the use of all biomass components.

Existing assessments of biomass supply and demand and their impacts face various types of limitations and uncertainties, partly due to the type of tools and methods applied (e.g., partial representation of sectors, lack of geographical details, and aggregated representation of technologies involved). Improved collaboration between existing modeling approaches may provide new, more comprehensive insights, especially into issues that involve multiple economic sectors, different temporal and spatial scales, or various impact categories. Model collaboration consists of aligning and harmonizing input data and scenarios, model comparison and/or model linkage. Improved collaboration between existing modeling approaches can help assess (i) the causes of differences and similarities in model output, which is important for interpreting the results for policy-making and (ii) the linkages, feedbacks, and trade-offs between different systems and impacts (e.g., economic and natural), which is key to a more comprehensive understanding of the impacts of biomass supply and demand. But, full consistency or integration in assumptions, structure, solution algorithms, dynamics and feedbacks can be difficult to achieve. And, if it is done, it frequently implies a trade-off in terms of resolution (spatial, temporal, and structural) and/or computation. Three key research areas are selected to illustrate how model collaboration can provide additional ways for tackling some of the shortcomings and uncertainties in the assessment of biomass supply and demand and their impacts. These research areas are livestock production, agricultural residues, and greenhouse gas emissions from land-use change. Describing how model collaboration might look like in these examples, we show how improved model collaboration can strengthen our ability to project biomass supply, demand, and impacts. This in turn can aid in improving the information for policy-makers and in taking better-informed decisions.

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The implementation of measures to increase productivity and resource efficiency in food and bioenergy chains as well as to more sustainably manage land use can significantly increase the biofuel production potential while limiting the risk of causing indirect land use change (ILUC). However, the application of these measures may influence the greenhouse gas (GHG) balance and other environmental impacts of agricultural and biofuel production. This study applies a novel, integrated approach to assess the environmental impacts of agricultural and biofuel production for three ILUC mitigation scenarios, representing a low, medium and high miscanthus‐based ethanol production potential, and for three agricultural intensification pathways in terms of sustainability in Lublin province in 2020. Generally, the ILUC mitigation scenarios attain lower net annual emissions compared to a baseline scenario that excludes ILUC mitigation and bioethanol production. However, the reduction potential significantly depends on the intensification pathway considered. For example, in the moderate ILUC mitigation scenario, the net annual GHG emissions in the case study are 2.3 MtCO2‐eq yr−1 (1.8 tCO2‐eq ha−1 yr−1) for conventional intensification and −0.8 MtCO2‐eq yr−1 (−0.6 tCO2‐eq ha−1 yr−1) for sustainable intensification, compared to 3.0 MtCO2‐eq yr−1 (2.3 tCO2‐eq ha−1 yr−1) in the baseline scenario. In addition, the intensification pathway is found to be more influential for the GHG balance than the ILUC mitigation scenario, indicating the importance of how agricultural intensification is implemented in practice. Furthermore, when the net emissions are included in the assessment of GHG emissions from bioenergy, the ILUC mitigation scenarios often abate GHG emissions compared to gasoline. But sustainable intensification is required to attain GHG abatement potentials of 90% or higher. A qualitative assessment of the impacts on biodiversity, water quantity and quality, soil quality and air quality also emphasizes the importance of sustainable intensification.