EU remains largest biodiesel producer

December 21, 2019 |

In Germany, UFOP reports that in the EU, biodiesel production has increased for another year, accounting for more than one third of world production, and said that the single most important biodiesel producer is the European Union, which accounted for 34 per cent of global output of 41 million tonnes in 2018.

The term “biodiesel” is used in the statistics to refer to biodiesel (FAME = fatty acid methyl ester), hydrogenated vegetable oil (HVO) and biofuels made from vegetable oils in petroleum refineries. Whereas in Europe biodiesel is mainly based on rapeseed oil, soybean oil is the primary source on the American continent. Soybean oil is a by-product of soybean meal production. It is used in biodiesel production in the wake of the steady expansion of soybean area and soy processing to cover demand for soybean meal for animal feeding. The most important biodiesel producers are the EU-28, the US, Brazil and Argentina. The Southeast Asian region has gained more and more importance in the biodiesel market. In the key palm oil producing countries, Indonesia and Malaysia, biodiesel production is on a steady increase, driven by increasing glut and the associated pressure on prices in the vegetable oil markets. Contrary to the EU, these countries are raising their domestic blending quota requirements (Indonesia: B20 / B30) to stabilise producer prices and to reduce foreign exchange expenses on oil imports. For the second time, global output of vegetable oils exceeds the level of 200 million tonnes in the 2019/2020 marketing year.

Category: Fuels

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