EU biodiesel market not having its best days

The EU is currently experiencing decline in biodiesel production, and some energy experts claim that this trend will continue in years to come, even despite the EU's Renewable Energy Directive (RED), which set a target for the EU to reach a 10% share for biofuels in its energy transport use.

The year 2008 was the last really good year for biodiesel production in European Union (EU) with the production growth rate increasing by more than 35 percent compared to 2007 levels. In 2009 EU’s biodiesel production grew by 17 percent compared to previous year, and in 2010 by 5.5 %. The decreasing trend also continued in 2011, and the 2012 will likely follow the similar pattern.

Why is biodiesel production experiencing such a slowdown in EU? The food vs. fuel debate is certainly one of the reasons for decrease in production but the main reasons for the decline include: increased biodiesel imports, particularly from Argentina and Indonesia, a decline in European diesel demand, and the uncertainty over the regulatory outlook for biodiesel. European Union’s imports of biodiesel are constantly rising.

In 2010 EU imported more than 1.9 million tons of biodiesel, of which more than 60 percent came from Argentina and 26 percent from Indonesia. In fact, one of the largest biodiesel markets in EU, the Spanish biodiesel market, has dwindled in the past three years because exporters from Argentina and Indonesia have priced them out of the market.

The European Union had 254 biodiesel facilities in 2011. According to analysts this will be only enough to fulfill 66 percent of the EU’s 2020 biofuel mandates. The large EU countries such as UK, Germany, France and Italy have all reported slight decreases in their biodiesel production. The largest biodiesel producers in EU are Germany and France, followed by Spain and Italy. Out of the four largest biodiesel producing nations in EU only Spain experienced slight increase in production in 2010.

Biodiesel plays major role in EU plans to reduce the level of carbon emissions emitted by transport but there are many scientists who are worried that the bigger biodiesel production would cause massive deforestation and higher food prices.

To conclude, concerns over biodiesel supply, demand and legislation are creating significant dose of uncertainty in EU biodiesel market, with investors accepting the more cautious approach and choosing to wait before making their moves.

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Biodiesel contamination by water

The water can contaminate biodiesel, degrading many of its properties in the process. It is true that biodiesel isn't miscible with water, but this isn't the issue here, the real problem is the fact that it absorbs water at a molecular level.

This is what makes biodiesel significantly more susceptible to water contamination compared to standard petroleum diesel. Once biodiesel gets contaminated by water, removing the water out of is anything but easy because biodiesel can retain up to 20 times more water than regular diesel.

The presence of water in biodiesel can cause damage to your vehicle

 
The presence of the water in biodiesel causes several different problems:

- The presence of water can lead to corrosion of fuel and injector pumps, fuel lines, as well as some other vital parts of the car.
- It can lead to loss of power and harder starting of the car because of its ability to reduce the heat of combustion of the bulk fuel.
- Water can also cause rotting of the filters in the system. Rotten filters can significantly shorten the lifespan of fuel pump.
- Water freezes at low temperatures, and this can result in faster gelling of the residual fuel.
- Water can also cause pitting in the pistons on a diesel engine.
- The presence of water can also accelerate the growth of microbe colonies.

As already said above, removing water out of biodiesel is difficult, meaning that the prevention should always be the first choice. Several techniques have proved to be extremely helpful in preventing water contamination of biodiesel, for instance, having all tank caps in place and in good condition, doing the filling of the tanks at the end of the day to avoid condensation when the temperatures cool overnight, using underground storage tanks, avoiding the prolonged exposure of fuel to light since this can induce algae growth, etc.

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Biodiesel good to know

Biodiesel is biofuel that has similar properties to standard diesel but does less environmental damage when compared to standard diesel used in our cars.

In order to produce biodiesel we need vegetable oils and a chemical process called transesterification.

Every new vehicle can use both standard diesel fuel as well as biodiesel.

Biodiesel is usually not used in its pure form (B100) and is in most cases blended with standard diesel.

Biodiesel creates up to 70% fewer emissions than standard diesel.

Increased biodiesel production is at this point subject of many controversies because biodiesel is mostly produced from food crops which could lead to food shortage and more hunger in the world.

Biodiesel can be also produced from algae but this solution is yet to become commercially viable.

Biodiesel can be also produced from algae

Biodiesel can retain up to 20 times more water than regular diesel which can lead to many issues such as corrosion, harder starting of the vehicle, rotting filters, etc.

Older vehicles may require few modifications in order to be fueled by biodiesel.

Biodiesel is better lubricant than standard diesel.

Biodiesel still costs significantly more when compared with standard diesel.

Standard diesel has more energy content compared to biodiesel which results in better mileage.

Biodiesel is non-toxic and biodegradable, and much safer to handle when compared with standard diesel.

In 2009, a quarter of total U.S. grain production was used to generate biodiesel.

Biodiesel has significant problems when dealing with lower temperatures.

Biodiesel isn't 100% free of carbon emissions.

United States has the potential to produce more than 50 million gallons of biodiesel per year.

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