Novozymes: “Oil companies are the only interface to consumers” for advanced biofuels.

In Denmark, Novozymes CEO Peder Holk Nielsen said that the issue facing the advancement of next-generation biofuels is “access to consumers and you see that clearly in the U.S.,” and told Bllomberg that “Oil companies don’t promote this technology and they are the only interface to the consumers as they control gas stations.”

Neilsen added that “Advanced biofuels will be a very, very hard sell outside those countries where the energy sector is state-controlled unless politicians get on top of it and mandate the use. That doesn’t mean subsidies, it just means that if they don’t mandate the use of it, the oil companies will always conclude that they would rather sell gasoline. A mandate in Europe on advanced biofuels is a battle with the oil companies. This comes down to how much does the world really want to replace fossil fuels with renewables. It doesn’t have to be expensive but it will require political will to make it happen.”

Neilsen’s remarks came just after a 2014 proposed mandate for US biofuels left the Environmental Protection Agency and went to the White House Office of Management & Budget for review. Novozymes is providing technology to many of the leading cellulosic biofuels ventures — including Beta Renewables, which the company invested in in 2012.