OUTLOOK OF SUSTAINABLE LIQUID BIOFUELS PRODUCTION

Abstract

The EU is the global frontrunner on sustainability and has introduced regulations under the Renewable Energy Directive and Fuel Quality Directive that lay down sustainability criteria that biofuels must meet before being eligible to contribute to the binding national targets that each Member State must achieve by 2020.  In Europe, the revised EU Renewable Energy Directive for 2020-2030, approved in December 2018, sets a target for a 14% share of renewable energy in the transport sector by 2030, with a sub-target of at least 3.5% use of advanced biofuels and biomethane. The Directive also places a 7% cap on the share of the overall target that can be met by conventional biofuels based on feedstocks that also could be used as food, reflecting EU concerns about competition between food and fuel and about potential indirect land-use change impacts. In the United States, the Environmental Protection Agency is responsible for the Renewable Fuel Standard program. This establishes specific annual volume requirements for renewable fuels, which rise to 36 billion gallons by 2022. These regulatory requirements apply to domestic and foreign producers and importers of renewable fuel used in the U.S.