UFOP demands B30 for commercials and tax shelter for admixed biogenic fuel

On the occasion of the presentation of the fleet project of Coburg College involving the use of hydrogenated vegetable oil as alternative fuel, the Union zur Förderung von Oel- und Proteinpflanzen (UFOP) called upon the German government to go ahead with launching the B30 fuel for commercial vehicles and make the biogenic portion eligible for tax concession.

In the presence of State Secretary Rainer Bomba, Federal Ministry for Transport, Construction and Urban Development (BMVBS) and State Secretary Melanie Huml, Bavarian State Ministry for Environment and Health, the Coburg College presented its fleet project under the title „Diesel regenerative“ for the testing of hydrogenated vegetable oil (HVO) fuel in engines. A fuel mix of 93 % HVO and 7% biodiesel and 98 % HVO and 2 % biodiesel, resp. will be tested in two car fleets. HVO is another regenerative biofuel in the Diesel market because higher rates of admixture are possible in combination with biodiesel without requiring changes to the valid norm for Diesel fuel.

To ensure equal opportunities in the market for all, UFOP demands that at the same time the use of B30 with 30 % biodiesel should be made possible by an amendment of the present Diesel norm EN 590. It was necessary, therefore, to make rapid progress and complete the standardization activities initiated on European level.

If the Diesel fuel norm was amended, in particular, the rate of admixture of biodiesel was increased from, at present, 7 % (B7) to 30 % (B30) for commercial vehicles, the mixing ratio of biodiesel and HVO could be any as long as the limit of max. 30 % admixture was observed. Plants producing totally approximately 4.9 million tonnes of biodiesel in Germany could profit from such a regulation. The recent announcement by Biopetrol of shutting down the production facility with 150,000 tonnes capacity in Schwarzheide underlined that action was needed urgently so that the window for the sale of biodiesel could be opened wider, UFOP states.

As UFOP sees it, the implementation of these proposals yields a number of benefits:

1. The supply situation in the undersupplied Diesel market would improve.

2. Competition for meeting the B30 proportion opens a new sales perspective equally for biodiesel and HVO producers.

3. The tax exemption can be paid back by companies in the mineral oil industry or the biofuel industry to enable them to credit the appropriate quantity to the quota obligation or generate tradable quota.

4. The focus of the use of B30 on the commercials sector is on a user group that is already familiar with alternative fuels (B100) and which would take advantage of an economically reasonable cost advantage.

UFOP expects that these proposals will be an impetus to open biodiesel and HVO producers prospects of selling their products and give a new lease of life to the discussion of the „Biofuels Roadmap“ in Germany. UFOP also sees the Federal Ministry for Transport, Construction and Urban Development (BMVBS) under an obligation to adapt the fuels strategy / fuels matrix. Politics always referred to the so called 2nd generation biofuels as an excuse to avoid the discussion of the potential ways of action that already existed, UFOP criticises.