Hveiti at World Ethanol & Biofuels Conference in Munich

Partly because of economic circumstances, but also inspired by political wishes, the biofuel industry which met in Munich this week, was more than ever inspired to change their productions, which turned out to be the central focus of this year’s conference. 

“The most striking thing at the conference was that the industry has completely changed its focus. Where focus used to be on producing ethanol, it has changed into a focus on productions becoming biorefineries where all products from the production are included,”

says Svend Brandstrup and continuous:

"The industry’s entire focus is now on reducing the energy consumption."

Furthermore, there is now agreement in the industry that the future biofuel productions will be biorefineries like Hveiti, where focus is on improving and optimising the use of the feedstock. 

EU proposal - no understanding in the industry 

At the same time there was a sad feeling in the industry, because of the EU Commission’s proposal for directive, where it has been proposed to reduce the mix of biofuel from 10 to 5 %. The industry’s does not understand why the Commission choses to include only the energy perspective in the proposal, and completely ignores the reduction potential, and how the biofuel industry could help strengthen both agriculture and the climate. 

This is due to the fact that the EU does not take into account the co-products of the biofuel production. The value of the these products – like protein feed – is not included in the calculations, which means that it is not considered that the feedstock, like wheat or maize, which is used in the production, it not only used for production biofuel, but is also used for the production of food and feed.