BIOFUELS ’06: Asia, Brazil, US to lead output

02 November 2006 08:23  [Source: ICIS news]

SINGAPORE (ICIS news)--Asia, Brazil and the US should account for an estimated 40% of global biodiesel production by 2020 if current economic trend persists, an industry veteran said on Thursday.

Global biodiesel production should grow to 24bn litres in 2020 from 3.5bn litres produced in 2005 according to the estimates by the International Energy Agency, Sergio Trindade said, adding that most of the current production comes from Europe.

Demand for biofuel has grown as consumers seek cheaper alternatives to highly priced oil and on environmental concerns, the director of science and technology at International Fuel Technology, said on the sidelines of the Ethanol and Biofuels Asia 2006 conference in Singapore.

 “Around 16bn litres should come from Europe [in 2020] and the rest from US, Asia, Brazil. Much of the Asian production is likely to be from Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand and India,” Trindade said.

Global fuel ethanol production, meanwhile, is estimated to triple to 120bn litres by 2020 from around 40bn litres currently.

The US and Brazil currently accounts for 90% of the world’s ethanol production but of the additional 80bn litres expected to come onstream by 2020, these two countries may account for 50bn litres, Trindade said.

Asia is expected to bring on stream 20bn litres and Europe 10bn litres, he added.

While cheaper transport fuel needs an economic factors drive biodiesel and ethanol demand, the success of projects will depend on sustainable supply of feedstock and well functioning markets, he added.

Ethanol feedstocks include sugar cane, sugar beet, maize and wheat while biodiesel plants can use feeds such as palm oil, rapeseed, soya bean, coconut oil and jatropha.

The conference organised by Terrapinn starts on Thursday and ends on Friday.

By: Abdul Hadhi
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