Advanced biofuels lobby pitches for stronger EU mandate
Advanced biofuels will supply far less than hoped during the next decade without a binding EU mandate for the sector from 2021, a lobby group for the sector said this week.
The statement comes amid scepticism from other industry groups that a move to residue-based biofuels can help the EU meet renewable energy targets for transport.
Leaders of Sustainable Biofuels (LSB) said the European Council’s proposal that a mandate should only begin in 2025 “would create significant political insecurity for the sector and jeopardize the swift uptake of advanced biofuels in the EU”.
The group wants member states to back proposals from the Commission and Parliament that this mandate should begin in 2021, and make it easier for biofuels derived from municipal waste to qualify for crediting in the 2021-2030 phase of the Renewable Energy Directive (RED II).
The EU’s biofuels market is broadly split into two, with some producers specialising in feedstocks such as used cooking oil, biomethane and crop-based residues, while others specialise in using primary food crops such as wheat, rapeseed, maize and corn to produce ethanol and biodiesel.
The European Parliament has proposed that advanced biofuels should be allocated a much bigger slice of the pie at the expense of crop-based biofuels as it seeks to stop what it says is food being used for fuel.
But crop-based biofuels producers are waging a lobbying campaign of their own, arguing in new research that the European Commission has wasted around €2 billion in over 50 “failed advanced biofuel plants”.
The research, which was commissioned by Ethanol Europe Renewables (EERL), a Dublin-based company that owns several ethanol plants in Europe, added that the Commission and EU Parliament “have neglected two common sense rules…failing to seek evidence of how something works in the real world and how much it will cost”.
Eric Sievers, Investment Director at Ethanol Europe Renewables, added: “Advanced biofuels need to walk before they can run, yet for 2030 EU policymakers seem to be planning a marathon for an industry that cannot yet stand on its own two legs.”
The research adds that just 1% of the capacity envisaged for advanced biofuels in the draft RED II has been built worldwide.
“It takes five years and over a €100 million to build a factory of the type needed. A 100 or so attempts worldwide have tried and failed, and there’s no trend towards success,” EERL added.
The statement comes as crop-based biofuels could have their share of overall road fuels (by volume) hammered down to 2% if the EU Council backs the EU Parliament’s proposal to cap renewable fuels to a 12% share of overall fuel use.
Mind the gap
In the 2021-2030 period, crop-based biofuels would likely have to deal with a threshold and share the overall transport allocation with advanced biofuels, electric vehicles, and biofuels derived from industrial processes.
Yet EERL’s research highlights uncertainty about whether advanced biofuels can fill the gap that would be left by a cap on the use of crop-based biofuels (the Parliament has proposed to restrict this to 2017 levels).
Residue-based biofuels would also be expected to make up for a potential exclusion of palm oil from RED II as a feedstock for biodiesel and hydrogenated vegetable oils, all at a time when demand for aviation biofuel is expected to grow massively.
Advanced biofuels producers say it is precisely the lack of a clear regulatory framework that has prevented the sector from traversing the "investment valley of death".
“The main reason for lack of investments is the policy uncertainty that has been a clear obstacle to making investments, since 2012,” said Marko Janhunen of Finnish advanced biofuels producer UPM and chair of the LSB.