RNCOS White Paper: Asia Pacific Leads Biofuel Production Growth

(RNCOS) In a world which is ever thirsty for energy, economies eye on renewable energy sources to conserve environment and reduce costs. Our recent analysis of global biofuel industry revealed that in 2012, Asia Pacific witnessed the fastest growth of around 17.6% in the biofuel production. China emerged as the leader with the production of 1729 Thousand Tonnes of biofuel in 2012, followed by Indonesia with 1212 Thousand Tonnes of biofuel.

Initiatives to replace oil by biofuel variants can be seen across the globe. Worldwide, ethanol producers are providing increasing amounts of livestock feed products such as distillers grains, corn gluten etc. while simultaneously providing growing volumes of corn distillers oil and other bio-based chemicals to replace oil. Many countries have invested in developing plants to increase production of environmental friendly ethanol. Similarly, biodiesel production in Europe has been driven largely by the European Union's (EU's) Renewable Energy Directive (RED), which has set a target for the EU to reach a 20% share of energy from renewable sources by 2020.

Analyzing the crests and troughs in the industry, Shushmul Maheshwari, CEO - RNCOS said, major challenges undermine the massive growth of biofuel industry. Although the US remain the market leader in terms of production, global biofuel production recorded the first decline since 2000 (-0.4%), due to a decline in the production in US (-4.3%) which was lead by numerous factors including drought pushing up corn and ethanol prices, low gasoline production, land constraints, high production costs and policy issues among others. Nevertheless, owing to high pressure on non-renewable fuels and escalating prices, biofuels will emerge as sustainable option in coming years. READ MORE and MORE (Ethanol Producer Magazine) Access study