Ethanol can only partially meet need for crude - Tereos

04 November 2009 11:40  [Source: ICIS news]

PARIS (ICIS news)--French ethanol maker Tereos said on Wednesday that it would take a significant increase in global agricultural output before biofuels could even come close to matching present crude oil production.

Global availability of agricultural supply was about half of what it would take to match crude production, said Tereos biofuels projects director Bernard Chaud during a presentation at FO Licht’s World Ethanol 2009 conference in Paris.

According to Chaud, agricultural feedstocks total 2bn tonnes/year, compared with 4bn tonnes/year of crude equivalent, or 90m bbl/day.

“But you have to take into account that the energy content in agriculture is lower,” the executive said, estimating that agricultural feeds have on average around one third of the energy in crude.

Ethanol was sustainable in the long term, but the role of biofuels for now was to only partially replace crude demand, Chaud said.

Tereos is a cooperative of some 12,000 French farmers. The company has 32 plants with operations in Europe, Brazil and Africa.

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By: William Lemos
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