EU Biofuel Import Controls Need Tightening: APPB

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September 23, 2022

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by Jonathan Gleave (Argus Media) A better traceability of imported feedstocks used to produced advanced biofuels, particularly those derived from the palm oil sector, is essential for both the reputation of the market and the EU but the block’s recent drive for better certification falls short, according to Portugal’s association of biofuels producers APPB.

The problem concerns not only the environment, but also the competitivity of biorefiners that use little or no derivatives or waste from the palm oil sector — such as those in Portugal — which have been competing with an increase in pre-blended, imported biofuels since early 2021.

Recent votes in the European Parliament such as the amendments to the RED II directive, or proposals to halt the sale of products from deforested or degraded land, are steps towards a better tracing of palm oil and its derivatives and preventing fraud arising from mixing palm oil with used cooking oil (UCO). But they only meet a fraction of the need for tighter monitoring of waste-based feedstocks, according to the association.

New controls on auditing and governance of sustainable biofuel supply chains via a central track-and-trace database, hosted by the European Commission, will include advanced biofuel feedstocks, but are only set to start becoming operational from 1 January 2023.

Unforeseen consequences

Wastes such as palm oil mill effluent (Pome) and empty palm fruit bunches were granted exemption from Portugal’s ISP special energy tax in January 2021, along with other biofuel feedstocks qualified as advanced by the EU’s RED II directive.

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Most of these imports arrive in Portugal already blended with road fuels, making it even more difficult, without tighter enforcement using methods such as isotope testing and geolocation, to trace the origins of their bio-component. In some 63pc of blended advanced biofuel imports to Portugal the bio-component is certified as waste from the palm oil industry.

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LNEG’s figures for palm industry waste feedstock are separate from volumes of spent bleaching earth oil (SBEO), a waste product from the refining process of palm and other vegetable oils that if extracted in line with best industry practices should occur in yields to refined oils at a proportion of 1:1000. READ MORE

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