The use of biofuels in Germany saved 11.1M tonnes of CO² in 2021, the country’s Union for the Promotion of Oil and Protein Plants (UFOP) wrote.
“For the time being, sustainably certified biofuels remain the most important option for decarbonising the transport sector,” UFOP said on 7 December.
UFOP’s comments followed the Federal Agency for Agriculture and Food (BLE)’s evaluation of sustainability certificates for offsetting against the greenhouse gas (GHG) quota obligation.
According to the BLE, a total of more than 3.9M tonnes of biofuels were used, of which approximately 2.72M tonnes were biofuels replacing fossil diesel, such as biodiesel and hydrotreated vegetable oil (HVO), compared to a total of 3.5M tonnes in 2020.
“The higher total quantity in 2020 is due to the fact that the GHG quota of 6% had to be fulfilled exclusively through the physical use of biofuels in the year in question. The option of GHG quota transfer was not possible again until 2021 with the same quota level,” UFOP said.
For this reason, UFOP said it expected total demand for the diesel market to be around 2.5M tonnes of biodiesel and HVO for 2022 with a GHG quota increased to 7%.
The share of biofuels from palm oil to be counted towards the GHG quota was limited to 0.9% of final energy consumption in road transport in 2022, UFOP said and, from 2023, crediting from palm oil usage would not be possible in Germany.
In terms of raw materials used in 2021, palm oil was the most important feedstock totalling 1.063M tonnes, followed by 0.772M tonnes of used cooking oils (UCO) and fats and around 0.6M tonnes of rapeseed oil.
Compared to the previous year, the share of HVO from palm oil in 2021 decreased by 0.52M tonnes to 0.3M tonnes.
