Global production of liquid advanced biofuels - status update 2020

This report provides an update of selected parts of the report Production of liquid advanced biofuels – global status, which was prepared by CIT Industriell Energi AB for the Norwegian Environment Agency (Miljødirektoratet) in 2018/19. The focus of both reports is on global production capacity of liquid advanced biofuels, the term advanced referring to biofuels produced from non-food feedstock, as opposed to conventional biofuels. Since the writing of the previous report, existing advanced production capacity has increased by about 1.2 Mm3/year (about 11 TWh/year) to roughly 5.7 Mm3/year (roughly 54 TWh/year). Planned and idled advanced production capacity is now about 14.2 Mm3/year (128 TWh/year), which is roughly a doubling since the previous report. If all announced plans for new plants are realized, production capacity is expected to almost triple by 2025. Current as well as near-future production capacity is completely dominated by the value chain for hydrotreatment of fatty-acids (“HVO-fuels”).

Annex IX of the recast renewable energy directive of the European union (REDII) divides advanced feedstock into categories A and B, where Category B includes waste animal fats and used-cooking oil, while Category A includes most other waste and residues of biogenic origin (including residues from palm oil refining, so called PFAD). Using this categorization, existing as well as planned advanced liquid biofuel production capacity has been estimated to be based on roughly 50-60 % Category A feedstock and 40-50 % Category B feedstock, based on information released by the concerned companies, combined with additional estimates (i.e., a bottom-up assessment).