London — UK renewable fuel supplies from April 15, 2017, to April 14, 2018, totalled 1.621 billion liters, a rise of 5.2% on the year, according to the latest Renewable Transport Fuel Obligation (RTFO) statistics released Thursday by the UK Department for Transport.
Biodiesel supplied in the UK over this period totalled 802 million liters, up 11.2% on the year, while bioethanol supplies totalled 744 million mt, down 1.9%.
Diesel and petrol supplies in the period amounted to 29.372 billion liters and 15.745 billion liters, respectively. For diesel, this reflected a 0.4% increase on the year, while for gasoline this represented a 3.0% increase on the year.
Some 1.306 million liters of biofuel have so far been demonstrated to meet sustainability requirements, of which biodiesel comprised 48% (622 million liters), bioethanol 47% (613 million liters) and biomethanol 5% (61 million liters).
Used cooking oil (UCO) represented 40% of all biofuel feedstock, down from 41% in the 2016/17 year. The feedstocks for ethanol were more diverse, however, with corn taking 14% of the total biofuel feedstocks, wheat: 12%, and starch slurry had an 11% share.
RTFO statistics also report that 2.169 billion Renewable Transport Fuel Certificates (RTFCs) have been issued for fuel meeting the sustainability requirements, 79.3% of which were issued to double counting feedstocks.
All of the RTFCs issued for this period have been to biofuel that has a minimum of 50% GHG savings.
Of all the biofuel feedstock supplied to the UK for the year, 25% came from the United Kingdom (321 million liters), 13% from France (166 million liters), 12% from the USA (159 million liters), 8% from Ukraine (101 million liters), and 5% from China (69 million liters).
The UK currently has a blending mandate for biofuels of 7.25%, which increased from 4.75% in April.
Biodiesel demand in the UK is expected to rise to 690,000 mt for 2018, up from 613,360 mt, as a result of this increase in the biofuels mandate. Most of the rise in the mandate is expected to be met by biodiesel, and particularly UCOME (UCO-based biodiesel), rather than ethanol, as the double-counting system will remain in place.
