Summary of World Bioenergy Association Global Bioenergy Statistics 2014

by Milsa Vijayadharan (Advanced Biofuels USA) Bioenergy is considered to be an important source of energy for the next decades for several reasons. Most important reasons are: bioenergy can contribute to the reduction of CO2, and therefore decrease the greenhouse-effect; bioenergy can reduce dependency on foreign sources of energy--in a sustainable, reliable, and cost effective manner; and it contributes to economic growth.
Heinz Kopetz (President, World Bioenergy Association) says for such an important energy source, there is a lack of reliable, up to date and consistent statistics. Being a world organization involved in the promotion of bioenergy, it was their responsibility to come up with such a report. It is the first attempt by WBA to provide an overview of the bioenergy sector globally and regionally.
Here is the summary of the WBA Global Bioenergy Statistics 2014 with an emphasis on biofuels. The base period chosen for this report was 2000-2011. Recent data was used wherever it was available.
Global energy sources are fossil, nuclear and renewables. Coal, natural gas and crude oil come under fossil and renewables can be sub categorized into three main sections 1) Hydro; 2) solar, wind, geothermal, tidal, wave, and ocean energy; and 3) bioenergy.
Global primary energy supply has increased by 30%. Among renewables the increase in the supply of bioenergy is the highest. Thirteen percent of the global primary energy supply for the year 2011 was from renewables out of which 10% was from bioenergy sources.
Gross final energy consumption is calculated by adding total final energy consumption and consumption of heat and consumption of electricity. (The statistics for electricity and heat consumption are derived after including the losses in transmission and distribution and the use of electricity and heat within the energy industry.) Gross final energy consumption of renewable energy sources in 2011 was 18.3% and gross final energy consumption of bioenergy was 14%. Fifty percent of global energy was used in the heating sector in 2011. Ninetytwo percent of bioenergy used in heating, with 5% used in transportation and 3% for electricity.
Asia is the largest user of bioenergy followed by Africa and the Americas. Asia and Africa are the leading users of biomass. Biomass can be obtained from wastes, solid biomass, biogas and liquid biofuels. 89% of the total primary energy supply of biomass in 2011 was from solid biomass. Biofuels contributed 5%; wastes and biogas contributed 4% and 2% respectively.
The WBA report also presents data regarding supply of biomass from forestry, agriculture and wastes. The origin of biomass is an important criteria for understanding the bioenergy sector. Biomass originates from forestry, agriculture and waste. The total forest area decreased in Africa, the Americas and Oceania while an increase was observed in Europe and continental Asian from 2000-2011. Since 2000, statistics show an increase in total agricultural area for all continents except Asia and Oceania. The total primary energy supply using municipal waste is highest in America and Europe.
Biomass to biofuels-In the year 2000, 17.8 billion liters of liquid biofuels were produced globally which increased to 106 billion liters in the year 2012. The Americas are the dominant biofuel producers. Seventy percent of global biofuel production comes from the Americas. USA and Brazil produced around 60% of the total biofuel production in the year 2011. This report presented the statistics of global and regional production of bioethanol, biodiesel, vegetable oil, advanced biofuels, and biomethane.
Bioethanol is produced predominantly in the US and Brazil. Bioethanol production in the US increased from 15 billion liters in the year 2000 to 50 billion liters in the year 2012. Global production of bioethanol increased from 17 billion liters in the year 2000 to 83 billion liters in the year 2012.
By 2012, global biodiesel production reached 22.5 billion liters. In the US, the production of biodiesel in the year 2012 was 3.4 billion liters.
Vegetable oils are a source of biofuels, the industrial consumption of vegetable oils is highest in Asian countries. In USA the industrial consumption of vegetable oil increased from 0.42 million tons in the year 2000 to 2.94 million tons in the year 2013.
There is an increased focus on advanced biofuels in the past few years. The actual production volumes were not available, the installed production capacity values shows that the global advanced biofuel production capacity increased from 1.58 billion liters in the year 2010 to 4.21 billion liters in the year 2013.
Biomethane or upgraded biogas is produced only in Europe.
The aim of this report is to assist policy decision makers, companies and researchers by providing up to date and consistent data on bioenergy. The bioenergy sector is complex and it is difficult to get a clear picture of its future potential. This report will help people understand interrelations between all aspects of bioenergy and communicate the importance and future potential of bioenergy to politicians, other decision makers, investors and the public. READ MORE Download report