Enjeux - Biofuels
OUTLOOK AND SOLUTIONS
Limited agricultural land in France
According to a 2007 study by ONIGC, now France AgriMer, France’s objective to incorporate 7% bioethanol in petrol by 2010 to reduce our dependence on oil imports will require just 2.5% of the land used by the country to produce cereals and 12% of that used for sugar beets. This represents less than 300,000 hectares, out of a total 9 million hectares used to farm these crops in France.
First-generation biofuels: a necessary step?
Progress is possible, starting with a better control of the factors that limit yields of these crops. Progress in genetics is regularly increasing yields in wheat, corn, rapeseed, sunflower and sugar beets.
Farmers have increasingly efficient coordination and monitoring tools that help them to cultivate crops with no waste in input. Improvements in industrial processes are also continuously boosting the energy yield of biofuels at plant exit. For manufacturers in the sector, first-generation biofuels are an indispensable step towards the development of a second generation of fuels.
Second-generation biofuels
The interest in second-generation biofuels would be to use the entire plant, exploiting all of its constituent parts. For an equivalent cultivated area, the productivity of biofuels is set to increase and energy and environmental performances will be improved. To develop this new generation, players are pushing ahead with considerable research programmes, such as the Futurol project coordinated by 11 partners with a budget of 74 million euros.
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Focus
RENEWABLE ENERGIES DIRECTIVE
- The European Council and Parliament have set an objective for 2020 of at least 20% renewable energies in the EU’s total energy consumption, and at least 10% in the transport industry.
- The EU has also drawn up sustainability criteria for biofuels, with the adoption of a minimum 35% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions (to be increased to at least 50% from 2017).
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BIOFUELS AND JOBS
- The biodiesel industry estimates that six jobs are created or maintained for the production of 1,000 tonnes of biodiesel. On that basis, with two million tonnes of biodiesel produced in 2010, more than 12,000 jobs would be maintained or created in France thanks to this activity.
- The bioethanol industry estimates that 3,500 jobs will be created or protected in 2010 through the production of biofuels out of cereals and sugar beets.
- The European Commission has calculated that the introduction of diesel and petrol fuel with 7% biofuel content will lead to the creation of 105,000 jobs in Europe by 2020.