EU urged to include palm oil wastes for bioenergy

The Malaysian Palm Oil Council (MPOC) has urged the European Union (EU) to include palm oil wastes and residues in bioenergy use.

The organisation made its comments following the EU’s new public input session into sustainable biofuels and biogases, which ended on 2 January.

The MPOC said that while bioenergy from first-generation sources of palm oil continued to be debated, the EU assessment of agricultural waste and residue feedstocks needed urgent review. It said the exclusion of any feedstock with a direct connection to palm oil was based on political rather than ecological grounds.

“Palm-based feedstocks in palm oil mill waste (POME) are clearly waste residues from agricultural activities that are not fit for use in the food or feed chain ... that will not cause market distortions or create additional demand for land.”

The EU Renewable Energy Directive (RED II) has an approved list of sustainable biofuel feedstocks in Annex IX (Parts A and B). According to the Euro- pean Commission (EC), this list must be regularly reviewed with a view to adding new materials that meet sustainability, greenhouse gas savings, and circular and waste hierarchy criteria.

The MPOC said that an assessment of feedstocks awarded by the EC to a consortium composed of E4tech (Lead), Cerulogy, the ICCT, Navigant, SCS Global Services and Wageningen University could have provided the EU with a poorly-informed decision to exclude bioenergy from palm-based waste sources.

Germany proposes to end crop-based biofuels

Germany’s environment minister Steffi Lemke has proposed phasing out production of biofuels from cultivated biomass in stages by 2030, which could reduce domestic oilseed crushing and lead to increased imports of soyabeans and soyabean meal, Oil World CEO Thomas Mielke said in a 25 January Reuters report.

About half of Germany’s rapeseed crop, (totalling 3.7M tonnes last year) is used to produce biodiesel, with about 3M tonnes blended with fossil diesel in the country each year.

“This proposal could generate changes in trade flows, with more German rapeseed oil going for export,” Mielke said. “There would also be a reduction in rapeseed cultivation. Such a drastic policy change would also reduce import demand, intensify competition with producers in exporting countries and reduce prices.”

Mielke added that he did not think it was possible to replace crop-based biofuels with wastes and used edible oil as Lemke had proposed because there was not enough waste available to produce the volumes needed.

Germany’s Union for the Promotion of Oil and Protein Plants also said on 25 January that as protein was obtained as a by-product of biofuel production, this share should be accounted for in the debate on land requirements for biofuels. “With rapeseed having a 60% protein share, only 40% of the crop area should be allocated to the biofuels production.” (see also p16)

Indonesia to introduce B35 on 1 February

Indonesia is set to increase its blending of palm oil in diesel fuel to 35% (B35), effective 1 February. This is a rise from B30 – which has been in place since January 2020 – but not the B40 target it had been planning, after the government considered availability of crude palm oil, according to Reuters Indonesia’s biodiesel allocation for domestic consumption this year would be 13.15M kilolitres, the highest on record and an increase of

19% compared to 2022’s allocation of 11.02M kilolitres, Reuters wrote on 30 December.

Indonesia has been increasing its blending of palm oil in diesel over the years to reduce reduce crude oil and fuel imports, as well as cut greenhouse gas emissions.

As the world’s largest producer and exporter of palm oil, Indonesia – and its biodiesel policy –has a wide impact on global oils and fats supply and prices (see p22).