New technologies to drive global biofuels demand to 67 bn gallons in 2022

New biofuel technology is finally starting to push aside traditional biofuels like first-generation biodiesel. New facilities based on non-food feedstocks and producing novel fuels account for over half of new capacity deployment for the first time in the biofuel industry’s history, according to Lux Research. However, overall output will grow at a slower pace to 67 billion gallons a year (BGY) in 2022, from 59 BGY in 2016. 

“A new era of technology commercialisation has brought the global biofuels industry to the cusp of a tipping point, as new facilities target low-carbon and high-performance drop-in biofuels. With many of the technologies capable of producing advanced biofuels still at demonstration scale, the next five years will be critical as companies raise capital, establish value chain security and produce commercial volumes as these projects come online,” said Runeel Daliah, Lux Research Associate and lead author of the report titled, ‘Biofuels outlook 2022: The dawn of a new era in global biofuel capacity expansion’.