Total begins bio jet fuel production at two plants

IN BRIEF

BRAZIL: The government has temporarily reduced its biodiesel blending requirement for diesel fuel from 13% to 10% due to strong demand for soyabeans, Reuters reported from a Mines and Energy Ministry statement on 9 April.

About 70% of Brazil’s biodiesel is produced from soyabean oil, with the remainder coming from bovine tallow and other oils, according to the ministry.

Brazil was projecting record soyabean production this season of about 136M tonnes but demand was high and biodiesel prices had skyrocketed recently due to high soyabean prices, Reuters wrote.

Low soya stocks in the USA and growing consumption in China had also led to tight supplies, the ministry statement said.

USA: Corn was the most widely used biofuel feedstock in the USA in January, followed by soyabean oil, according to the US Energy Information Administration.

Corn use totalled 10.5bn kg, followed by soyabean oil at 309M kg, yellow grease at 119M kg, corn oil at 96M kg, tallow at 38M kg, white grease at 24M kg and poultry fat at 15M kg, Biodiesel magazine reported on 31 March.

Production capacity stood at 65.6bn litres for fuel alcohol, 8.7bn litres for biodiesel capacity and 2.9M litres for other biofuels including renewable diesel, renewable heating oil, renewable jet fuel, renewable naphtha and renewable gasoline.

The EIA Petroleum Supply monthly report also showed that refinery and blender net inputs of total renewable fuels stood at 25.5M barrels in January including 23.8M barrels of fuel ethanol and 1.5M barrels of renewable diesel and biodiesel fuel.

Total starts bio jet fuel production at two plants

French oil giant Total has started producing sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) at its La Mède biorefinery in southern France and its Oudalle facility near Le Havre, the company announced on 8 April.

The biojet fuel, made from used cooking oil (UCO), was expected to be delivered to French airports from April.

From 2024, Total was also expecting to produce SAF at its zero-crude Grandpuits platform, southeast of Paris.

All of Total’s SAF would be made from animal fat, UCO and other waste and residues sourced from the circular economy without the use of vegetable oils as feedstock, the company said.

New legislation in France calls for aircraft to use at least 1% biojet fuel by 2022, 2% by 2025 and 5% by 2030.

“By producing sustainable aviation fuel at our French sites today, we are able to respond to strong demand from an aviation industry looking to reduce its carbon footprint,” said Total president of refining and chemicals Bernard Pinatel.

Total is involved in a range of initiatives to produce and market SAF in partnership with industry partners and is launching a dedicated renewable fuels business unit in May 2021. Its aim is to achieve net zero emissions by 2050.

Production begins at Eni Gela refinery

Italian oil and gas company Eni announced on 19 March that production has started at its Gela biorefinery.

Eni said the plant’s new biomass treatment unit would enable up to 100% of the biomass from used cooking oil, and fats from fish and meat processing to be used in the production of biodiesel, bio-naphtha, bio-LPG and bio-jet fuel.

Following a project to grow castor plants on semi-desert land in Tunisia, castor oil would also be used to feed the Gela biorefinery. Eni added that palm oil would not be used in its production processes from 2023.

Construction of the Gela biorefinery began in early 2020 and the biomass unit completes the project’s second phase.

Eni said it was committed to achieving total decarbonisation of its products and processes by 2050. The company’s 2021-2024 plan provides for the doubling of production capacity at

Eni plans to use castor oil from its project in Tunisia as a bio feedstock at its Gela biorefinery

its biorefineries to around 2M tonnes by 2024, and increasing to 5/6M tonnes by 2050.

UK imports of ‘dubious’ UCO could rise

UK proposals to increase biofuel blending could lead to a surge in imports of ‘dubious’ used cooking oil (UCO), according to green campaign group Transport & Environment (T&E).

T&E said on 20 April that under the UK Renewable Transport Fuels Obligation, UCO counted double towards national climate targets.

“This means UCO is often traded at a higher price than virgin oil, which increases the risk that virgin oils are fraudulently mixed with imported UCO. The EU Court of Auditors has said that voluntary schemes cannot guarantee that all the UCO imported into Europe, including the UK, is actually ‘used’.”

T&E UK director Greg Archer said the UK’s increasing thirst for UCO to power transport was 15 times more than could be supplied from British deep fat fryers, leaving the country reliant on imported used oil.

Almost half of the UCO supplied to the UK last year came from China (244M tonnes), while 49M tonnes came from Malaysia, according to T&E.

Archer said the UK should strengthen its verification and monitoring requirements for imported waste oil.

“Otherwise we will end up doing more harm than good.”

UK fossil fuel suppliers are currently required to supply nearly 10% renewable transport fuels, according to T&E, and the Department for Transport is consulting on increasing these targets to nearly 15% by 2032.