Italy to introduce first national mandate for advanced biofuels
Tue 14 October 2014
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In a move which provides a boost to theindustry, Italy is to become the first country in Europe to set legally binding requirements to mandate the use of "advanced biofuels" in road transport. The new fuels, made from wastes and residues, would reduce the amount of land taken out of food production. From 2018, all fuel suppliers in the country will have to include 0.6% advanced biofuel in petrol and diesel.
Advanced biofuels are derived from substances such as algae, waste, or agricultural residues. As such, they avoid conflict with food production and should not contribute to deforestation, negating much of the criticism levelled at corn ethanol and some forms of biodiesel.
However, production of advanced or second generation biofuels is still at a very low level, with only one large scale plant in the EU, at Crescentino in Italy - which makes fuel from straw - and another that opened in the US last month.
The 2009 Renewable Energy Directive required that 10% of energy used within the transport sector should come from renewable sources but amid concerns that land was being converted from food production to grow crops for biofuels, the EU reduced this to 5.75%.
The EU backed down from a planned mandatory advanced biofuels target of 2.5 per cent by 2020, with member state energy ministers diluting the proposal to a non-binding goal of 0.5 per cent.
An Italian ministerial decree requires 0.6% of all petrol and diesel contain advanced biofuels from 2018. This rises to 1% by 2022.
How the UK should approach its obligation to meet the RED in 2020 is the core challenge being tackled by the newly formed DfT/LowCVP Transport Energy Taskforce.
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