Foreword 

The big news this month has been the publication of a consultation to introduce E10 fuel in the UK by the Department for Transport. Currently, there are perceived to be too many market barriers for E10 to proliferate of its own accord, and so the DfT is looking to step in. Chief among the issues in the discussion has been  the protection of those motorists with petrol vehicles not warrantied to run on E10. This includes almost all cars produced before 2000. The DfT has therefore proposed to retain a ’regular grade’ E5 option at the pump until at least 2021. The flipside of this approach, is that the 95% of motorists with E10 compatible petrol vehicles will simply continue to use E5, resulting in no tangible penetration of E10 into the market. The consultation is open until September, and we will eagerly await any policy outcomes from it......

Other news this month includes:

Policy

• UK launches consultation on E10 biofuel
• New EU project to investigate biofuels from forest biomass
• Mixed reaction to latest US biofuel targets
• UK zero-emissions transport strategy launched​

Markets

• EU tariffs threaten Argentinian biodiesel
• Estonians opt for higher-octane petrol over biofuel
• Zion market research foresees growth in algal biofuel market​

Research & Development

• Implementation plan for biofuels innovation
• US funding for microbial biofuel production
• Azolla plant shows potential as biofuel feedstock​

Bioethanol

• US approves sorghum as biofuel feedstock

Biodiesel

• Greenergy to buy dormant Dutch biodiesel plant

Aviation Biofuel

• Breakthrough in UN aviation emissions agreement

Other Fuel

• Global Bioenergies partner with Audi for biobased gasoline
• Biofuels partnership between Boskalis and GoodFuels
• Liquid biogas for shipping fuel​

Price Information

Events