EU biodiesel output to double

Demand for biofuel may facilitate India's entry into sector

Giving a fillip to bio-diesel production, the European Union's capacity is expected to almost double to about 6.07 million tonne in the 2006 calendar year, compared with 3.2 million tonne last year, as per data provided by the European Biodiesel Board.

In 2005, however, the EU countries failed to utilise the total capacity of 4.2 million tonne and produced only 3.2 million tonne, rising 65 per cent compared with the 1.93 million tonne produced the year earlier.

The expected rise in capacity this year is owing to bio-diesel producing countries almost doubling in the EU in 2005 to 20 from the previous year's 11. Biodiesel is gaining popularity following rising crude oil prices.

Apart from rapeseed oil and soyoil, the EU is also considering use of palmoil to fuel their growing demand for biodiesel, Raffaello Garofalo, secretary general of the Belgium-based European Biodiesel Board, told Business Standard earlier.

Rapeseed, however, is not widely available in the EU. "Despite sustainability issues - political as well as technical - the growing demand for biodiesel is forcing us to look for alternatives to rapeseed," Garofalo said. Political limitations count more than the technical ones, especially in case of palm oils.

There is thus likely to be demand for rapeseed from the EU. Industry experts in India feel the country can benefit from the huge carryover rapeseed stocks it has, pegged at 33 lakh tonne, for producing biodiesel. EU is also looking at other souces such as ethanol for blending with petrol, and jatropha and palm oil for blending with diesel.

Jatropha too may fuel India's entry into the biodiesel sector. However, the biofuel is a non-edible oil, which makes its residues a matter of concern.

The EU is the world leader in biodiesel production and capacity, followed by the US, which produced about 2,50,000 tonne in 2005.

Within the EU, Germany remains the top producer, with production touching 1.6 million tonne last year, compared with a million tonne in 2004. The other main producers were France (4,92,000 tonne) and Italy (3,96,000 tonne), followed closely by the Czech Republic (1,33,000 tonne) and Poland (1,00,000 tonne).

Biodiesel makes up about 80 per cent of the EU's total biofuels production. Use of biofuels is expected to contribute towards cut in greenhouse gas emissions, reduce oil import bills and relieve the structural diesel deficit of EU fuel markets.

Technical limitations are the strict EU quality standards and lower iodine number. While palm oils have lower iodine count, these are unsustainable for the EU's winter conditions.

Other possible sources of biodiesel are soybean, animal fat, sunflower or jatropha. Limitations in case of soybean is that very little of it is produced in the EU and has to be imported. The case of sunflower also is not much different. Besides sunflower is expensive as it is not widely grown in the EU.