Biodiesel consumption in Ireland in July reached a total of 15.54 million liters, down 10.44% on the month, but up 47.8% on the year, data from the National Oil Reserves Agency (NORA) showed.
Ethanol consumption was 4.95 million liters, down 1.6% on the month and 7.5% on the year.
Ethanol consumption fell in line with gasoline both on the month and the year, while biodiesel consumption fell further than diesel in percentage terms on the month, and rose further than diesel on the year.
July diesel consumption fell 3.2% on the month to 268.36 million liters, but was up 4.6% from July 2016. As a result, the biodiesel incorporation rate fell to 5.79% in July 2017 on a volumetric basis, from 6.25% in June but was significantly higher than the 4.10% a year earlier.
Gasoline consumption fell both on the month and the year, down 2.4% and 8.7% respectively to 95.94 million liters. This left the incorporation rate for ethanol edging higher as the fall in ethanol consumption was less pronounced. The ethanol incorporation rate into gasoline was 5.16% in July 2017, from 5.12% in June and 5.09% a year earlier.
Consumption of biofuels in Ireland is expected to grow over the course of the year due to the increase in the biofuels mandate to 8.695% from 6.383% on a volumetric basis, as seen with the increases in biofuel blending rates on the year.
The biodiesel blending rate for January-July 2017 reached 5.24% on a volumetric basis, from 2.92% over the same period in 2016, as the ethanol blending rate rose to 5.10% from 4.91%.
But as there are no minimums for ethanol or biodiesel, prices will be key in determining blending economics.
Ireland is a greater consumer of diesel than gasoline and so the amount of biodiesel consumed is expected to exceed that for ethanol over the course of 2017.
