The discussion about banning internal combustion engines (ICEs) is in full swing at national- and European levels. Critics of the use of sustainable biofuels from cultivated biomass for transportation often use the term "land consumption" as an argument against dedicated biofuel crops. Stephan Arens, Managing Director of the Union for the Promotion of Oil and Protein Plants (UFOP), points out that when it comes to rapeseed production in Germany, there can be no question of "land consumption" for biofuel production.
Ett fel inträffade
På din profilsida ser du vilka av våra produkter som du har tillgång till och mer information.
Skulle uppgifterna inte stämma på din profilsida – vänligen kontakta vår support.
Var vänlig ladda om sidan
Vill du läsa hela artikeln?
- Six editions per year
- Full access to all digital content
- The E-magazine Bioenergy international
- And more ...
The discussion about banning internal combustion engines is in full swing at the national and European levels.
Closely related to this is the question of whether the technological focus should be exclusively on electric drives in order to enable sustainable and largely carbon dioxide (CO2) neutral individual transport.
In addition to electro-fuels (eFuels), whose production still needs to be developed for years, sustainable certified biofuels are a measure for decarbonizing road transport that has already been introduced in the fuel market and is available in relevant quantities.
In 2021 alone, the blending of up to 7 percent biodiesel and up to 10 percent bioethanol in Germany could save over 11 million tonnes of CO2eq, as officially confirmed.
Critics of this use of biofuels from cultivated biomass, which has been established and certified as sustainable since 2010, often address “land consumption” when it comes to the use of rapeseed as a raw material for biodiesel production, for example.
The energy supply through biofuels of around 34.3 TWh (2021) corresponds to a total energy supply of approximately 8 200 wind power plants, which do not have to be built for this power output.
Stephan Arens, Managing Director of the Union for the Promotion of Oil and Protein Plants (UFOP), points out in this context that there can be no question of land consumption for biofuel production.
Rapeseed is the most important domestic oil-bearing plant and it is never ‘consumed’ exclusively for the production of biofuels. Instead of land consumption, we should rather talk about sustainable and comprehensive land use, because each of the approximately 1.2 million hectares (ha) of rapeseed currently growing on German fields not only provides oil but to an even greater extent high-quality protein, Stephan Arens said.
Every litre of rapeseed oil, regardless of its use as cooking oil or energy source (directly or indirectly as used cooking oil – UCO) thus also contributes significantly to the nutrition of farm animals, which in turn contributes to human nutrition in the form of meat and dairy products as well as eggs.
Stephan Arens explains what additional positive effects are associated with this.
In the discussion about biofuels, it is often ignored that rapeseed grown and processed in this country replaces imported soy meal to a considerable extent. As only seeds may be grown in the EU that have not been genetically modified, this also enables GMO-free milk and meat production, ended Stephan Arens.
