Advanced Biofuel Producers Still See Promise in Aviation Sector

摘要

Advanced biofuels seem like the Cinderella of renewables, left behind to flounder as wind and solar have taken off in recent years. But despite setbacks and false starts, advanced biofuels producers have not given up. A mood of cautious optimism pervaded the recent World Bio Market conference in Amsterdam, with aviation biofuels looking like an especially bright spot even if their uptake so far has been slow. While opportunities on the buy and sell sides of advanced biofuels are huge, so are the challenges of accelerating investment and deployment, noted Ausilio Bauen, director at consultancy E4Tech. Advanced biofuel investments have fallen from $35 billion in 2007 to just $2 billion in 2015, so a major reversal is needed in spending, Bauen suggested. A recently proposed 3.6% advanced biofuels mandate for 2030 is seen as encouraging, given that policy uncertainty has been a major deterrent to investment, particularly in Europe. Royal Dutch Shell’s advanced biofuels general manager Andrew Murfin noted the EU’s proposed advanced biofuels policy measures are “a very positive step forward” (JFI Dec.26’16). Shell continues to have ambitions to make advanced biofuels, he added, and could be producing them by 2022. Thanks to progress at member state level in the EU, Murfin said Shell was now looking at the possibility of investing in Europe — as well as in the US where it has been looking for advanced biofuels opportunities. He said the firm’s investment decisions would be based on a “a case of right feedstock, right project, right place.”