Consumption of biofuels in road transport decreases

The consumption of biofuels decreased from 3.5 percent of all petrol and diesel consumed in road transport in 2009, to 2 percent in 2010. The consumption of biodiesel fell from 3.5 to 1.5 percent. The consumption of biopetrol remained constant at 3 percent of all petrol.

Biofuels for road transport

Blending obligation

Suppliers of road transport fuels are obliged to deliver a certain share of biofuels from 2007 onwards. In practice, the obligation mainly involves blending biofuels in ordinary petrol and diesel. This is refered to as the “blending obligation”. The obligatory share of biofuels in petrol and diesel for road transport increased from 2 percent in 2007, 3.25 percent in 2008, 3.75 percent in 2009 to 4 percent in 2010.

Physical delivery of biofuels to the Dutch market equalled 2 percent of all petrol and diesel for road transport in 2010. This is substantially below the target of the obligation. This does not mean that suppliers did not fulfil their obligation, because suppliers are also allowed to use additional deliveries from preceding years. This happened to a large extent in 2010.

In addition, environmental-technically good biofuels count double from 2009 on. When suppliers use such biofuels, they need to deliver less biofuels to fulfil their obligation. In biodiesel this double counting was much used, explaining why biodiesel consumption decreased in 2010. Biopetrol consumption remained constant.

Reinoud Segers

Source: StatLine, Biofuels for road transport