Biofuel

The EU biofuel market. Production and consumption (extracted from EBIO)

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Europe’s fuel ethanol sector was a slow starter. It took almost 10 years to grow production from 60 mio litres in 1993 to 525 in 2004. In the following 2 years we saw a true explosion in production. In 2005 and 2006 there were double-digit growth levels of over 70%. However, it was not a sustainable growth; in 2007 production increased by ‘only’ 11%.

Compared to the U.S.A. and Brazil but also the biodiesel sector the EU fuel alcohol sector is rather small. The U.S.A. nowadays produces every month more than the EU has produced in 2007 in total. Moreover, the EU biofuel market is still predominantly a biodiesel market (80%).
 
Global Ethanol Production for Fuel (2006)

The top 4 EU producers of ethanol are France, Germany, Spain and Poland. The top 6 consumers are Germany, Sweden, France, Spain, Poland and the UK. Overall consumption of fuel ethanol in 2007 is estimated between 2.5 and 2.7 bn litres whereas total production was around 1.77 bn litres. The gap was filled by ethanol from, almost exclusively, Brazil (98% of total imports originating from Brazil). Last year ethanol imports were equal to 45% of EU production and over 30% of total consumption.

The US Chooses Biofuels as one of the major investment opportunities

As the following chart demonstrates photovoltaics are not the only sexy investment around as biofuels rank a close third place in venture capital investments in the country.

Brazil: The opportunity and success of biofuels
Extracted from a 2006 OECD/IEA report on the energy situation in Brazil.

Brazil is the world’s second largest producer - and the most efficient - of fuel ethanol from sugarcane. Between 1975 and 2004, the ethanol program substituted about 230 billion liters of gasoline. Brazil’s national ethanol programme (ProAlcool) began in response to the oil crisis of the 1970s. By the mid-1980s more than three quarters of the 800,000 cars could run on ethanol thanks to a combination of high subsidies and policy decisions. However, when sugar prices rose sharply in 1989, sugarcane growers diverted crops to the export market, and a severe shortage of ethanol occurred in the second quarter of 1989. This shortage resulted in a loss of consumer confidence in the security of ethanol supply and discredited ProAlcool. In response, the government authorized ethanol imports, and Brazil became the world’s largest importer of ethanol5. Brazilian drivers as well as Brazilian car makers were left in disarray for lack of fuel. By the end of the 1990s, the sales of ethanol-fueled cars amounted to less than 1 % of total annual auto sales because fuel manufacturers could not assure hydrous-ethanol consumers security of supply.

The turning point took place in 2003 when car manufacturers, beginning with Volkswagen introduced the “flex fuel” car, which gave consumers the choice and resilience to buy any combination of the cheapest fuel while protecting them from any fuel shortages. Today ethanol accounts for 40 % of Brazil’s driving fuel, and 70% of the cars sold in Brazil (an estimated 1.1 million in 2006) have flex fuel engines, and cost no more than conventional cars. The country’s ‘flex fuel’ car fleet is the only one in the world that can use 100 % of either ethanol or gasoline. Brazil’s ethanol production was 15.9 billion liters in 2005, more than a third of the global production, of which 2.6 billion litres were exported. Brazil has a 50 % market share of global ethanol exports. India is Brazil’s biggest ethanol export customer, just ahead of the U.S. More recently, Brazil has authorized that biodiesel be added to diesel fuel as part of the Brazilian strategy for the Green Fuel Matrix Program. The biodiesel program is set to guarantee a 2% obligatory mixture starting in 2008, which will rise to 5% in 2013.

Los biocombustibles en crisis en España

Según el último estudio publicado por la Asociación de Productores de Energías Renovable Española   (APPA), los productores españoles de biodiésel sólo han podido producir de media durante el primer semestre de este año al 16% de su capacidad instalada. El sector espera que surtan efecto las medidas previstas contra el biodiésel norteamericano: exclusión de la obligación de biocarburantes y aplicación de aranceles compensatorios. Los biocarburantes han alcanzado en el primer semestre de 2008 una cuota del 1,47% del mercado español de combustibles cuando el objetivo para este año es del 1,9%. Las anteriores son algunas conclusiones del informe “Capacidad, producción y consumo de biocarburantes en España. Situación y perspectivas”, elaborado por APPA Biocarburantes.

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Comments

[fruit baskets]

It takes thousands of years for fossil fuels to produce, but biofuels are much more easily renewable new crops are grown and collected waste.

[Isabeladaisy]

The article on the bio fuels is very good and informative. This is very good renewable energy source.I request the author to visit the site http://investmentsinenergy.com , since this site has a cluster of  info about the investments made in bio diesel sector and interesting news about the renewable energy news.

[dermalogica shop]

Fuel companies will have to report their production methods, but there is no legal obligation to produce biofuels sustainably.

[r4 card]

Range Fuels announced on Wednesday that it has a plant commercially viable cellulosic biofuels. It gives the methanol can be converted into biodiesel and ethanol and other gases.