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First European Summit on Sustainable Bio fuels gets 8 out of 10: 350 professionals from 20 countries attend the Summit

The European Summit on Sustainable Bio fuels has closed its first gathering in Madrid, Spain, with 350 professional attendees from 20 countries participating in 34 presentations. The general impression of the organisation, the attendees and the exhibitors was one of “much more and better than could be expected from this first meeting”, which was marked by the good contents and a good working atmosphere, although also by the lack of public and political interest.

The two stream approach, splitting biomass availability from sustainable production and accreditation of bio fuels, made at least visually clear that the bio fuel business still has a long way to go as far as sustainability is concerned. Whilst almost 300 participants did fight for a seat in the A-stream room, only 50 attendees where interested in the sustainable aspects of the business, which clearly contradicts with reality as Accreditation of Sustainable feedstock and bio fuels is on it’s way at least for Palm Oil and Soybean and is now considered one of the main parameters for risk management in the business. Or to speak with the inauguration words of the WWF speaker Mr. Enrique Segovia: The day this room will be as full as the other, is the day that this industry understands that sustainability is the only road to go. We will be here to explain again.” Or as one of the other speakers stated: “The bio fuel industry needs to take sustainability more serious than putting sunflowers, waterfalls and rapeseed fields in their advertisements.”

Is there enough Sustainable Biomass, now or in future, to produce bio fuels for an ever increasing demand?

This was the main question to answer during the European Bio Fuel Summit 2oo7 and to start of with the conclusion: there is today no answer to that question as only scattered bits and pieces of information with lots of wholes in it are available. First of all, today there is no worldwide mapping done of all agro-products- and locations which are or could be used for feedstock production for bio fuels. Such a mapping would help to quantify available volumes and would help to exclude environmentally sensitive areas of production. Even if this mapping would be done, nobody can guarantee today the final use of those products would be bio fuels or go to food or feed applications, for example, as no traceability systems are in place and the physical product changes often several times from owner and thus from pretended end-use during transport: Thirdly, there are only few realistic data available at this stage about how the internal and external bio fuel markets will develop as lots of parameters are unstable; like politics, the future of petroleum markets and consumption and availability worldwide of both petroleum and bio fuel feedstock’s; the development, availability and implementation of other clean and green energy sources, recyclables who can be used, forest mass and so on. So the only thing to hang on to at this time is the individual opinions of countries like Brazil, Argentina, Germany, Spain or Indonesia who all gave their views and perspectives, umbrella organisations and other stakeholders. In general terms, nobody questions today the need or necessity of bio fuels and at least the mentioned countries see enough opportunities to produce for the home market and even export feedstock and in future also bio diesel and ethanol. In fact and as an example, Spain is already today exporting 95% of its whole ethanol production, mostly to Northern European countries, as there is no internal market demand in Spain at this time, although Car manufacturers like Ford are selling in Spain already cars totally prepared for the use of ethanol as well as traditional gasoline and with success! It will be only a matter of time until local demand will boost.

And what about sustainability: can different interests be integrated?

The second question to answer on this Summit was if different stakeholder interests finally can be integrated in common approaches towards a sustainable market. This seems at least the case for Palm Oil and Soybean, where different stakeholders with completely opposed opinions are now working together in Round Tables for Sustainable Development of Palm Oil and Soybean. Those Round Tables are quite far advanced in the definition of worldwide standards which will soon become a must in this business.

André Baken, organiser of the Summit: “But those initiatives are only scratching the surface of global awareness. We have to find better ways to get the message across. A future verification standard for sustainable bio fuels (and its traceability through the supply chain all the way back to the producers and the plantation, both in Europe and overseas); its accreditation requirements and the verification process requirements are on its way and were addressed in the B-Stream last week during the SUMMIT, but were not picked up by the attendees who were mostly interested in feedstock availability and technical questions. The political and public interest was even worse. This means that the work of a handful of leading industrial companies, retailers and NGO’s needs to be communicated widely into the whole market.”

Indeed the numbers of the Summit speak for themselves: Of a total of 350 attendees only 2(!) attendees came from public entities and none from political stakeholders. So much about CO2 reduction and cleaner public transport and energy supply. Significant was also the total lack of interest of the hosting City and Province of Madrid who where supposed to inaugurate and close the Summit. The announced persons never showed up. Baken: “As it seems, Al Gore will have to continue his World Tour for a while longer as all the media coverage on the subjects of CO2 reduction, cleaner fuels and more sustainability does not translate into a more pro active approach from those stakeholders. Awareness amongst at least Spanish political as well as public workers needs to be further improved as they are now definitely giving the wrong signals to the industry.”

Amplify the Sustainable Accreditation work done to all feedstock for bio fuels?

A sustainability Accreditation of bio fuels seems at this stage partially possible but very complex. Some of the feedstock providers like the Palm and Soybean industries are working in the context of the Round Tables for Sustainable Palm Oil and Sustainable Soybean towards global standards for sustainable Palm and Soy, which will be applicable on all users, be it in the food, feed or fuel industry. As soon as those platforms decide and agree on a Verification Standard, the Accreditation Requirements and the Verification Process, Verifiers and Approval Bodies – which might happen still year - all other players in the field will have a guideline, but also the moral obligation to submit themselves to this new Standard and at least part of those product groups can be certified. A 100% certification of all available Palm and Soy in the world will still take much time as at least 40% of all production comes from smallholders who will have difficulties to comply, but there is a beginning.

But in the case of bio fuels this will only partially tackle the subject as there are so many other biomass sources and many other providers of feedstocks. Some of them are not at all organised. Considering that blending of fuels from different sources and feedstock types is already done and will soon be the standard, this will have negative resonance on the sustainability of bio ethanol and biodiesel as it will become almost impossible to certify that what you buy at the pump is a sustainable fuel, because feedstock’s are often mixed and bio fuels are often blended. If we go even further downstream one must consider that many different production badges, certified or not, can be pumped into one single storage tank. When a truck leaves to refill a petrol station, this refill will be added to the existing rest badges in the storage tanks on the petrol stations.

One can imagine the complexity of demonstrating the real degree of sustainability of a bio fuel you just bought at the pump.

This means that today’s producers (and investors) might end up with bio ethanol or biodiesel that is at least to some extend and to some stakeholders unacceptable for the market. So he could be forced to buy only certified feedstock or maintain separate flows for accredited and non accredited feedstock’s to blend them later into a combination of whatever the Norm of Acceptance would be at the time. This would lead to serious business limitations and/or extra investments and probably to financial fallbacks. On the other hand, it offers opportunities to countries and product groups who have less trouble to cope with on coming rules. So the conclusion can be that sustainable accreditation of bio fuels will be possible to some extend, but with severe limitations at the time as there are a lot of questions to answer and still a lot of work to do on the subject. The 2oo8 SUMMIT in Madrid will again be the meeting point of all interested in a solid and sound future of bio fuels.

2oo8 SUMMIT will address Biomass for sustainable Biodiesel as well as ethanol

Survey, organizer of the Summit, takes on for the second time the challenge for 2oo8, preparing the Second European SUMMIT for Sustainable Biomass to Bio fuel which will again take place in the Municipal Palace of Congresses of the City of Madrid, again in the third week of April (22 – 24 April), inviting again most of the key speakers on Sustainability and Verification Standards, the Accreditation Requirements and the Verification Process, Verifiers and Approval Bodies, as far as available at the time.

Baken: “As far as the organisational part is concerned, we learned that we will have to mix better the information flow and contents, giving the audience the opportunity to connect between given industrial and business information with other information from users out of other fields like for example the food industry, and opinions from NGO’s and other non profit organisations, giving the audience a better chance to understand relations, impacts and business risks. Baken: “That’s why we did choose for 2oo8 for the 1-2-1 approach, which means that there will be a first day about bio diesel and the second day will concentrate on sustainability and accreditation systems for all bio fuels. The third day will address ethanol. This gives all stakeholders the opportunity to listen in two days to all pro’s and contra’s without the need to stay the full three days, unless you have stakes in both biodiesel as well as ethanol.”

Biomass to Bio fuel Trade show

“A final conclusion of this Summit would be the cry from industry to create a yearly professional Market Place to meet and deal without a direct relation with a Summit, Congress or Symposium. That’s why Survey will create a business specific trade show with well segmented interest groups and areas which will finally free exhibitors of hanging around as a second plate on congresses, shows and other gatherings.

Interested journalist and media can obtain for free one or several of the given presentations on the SUMMIT. Please call Secretarial Office on +34 902 364 149 or mail estefania@bakencom.es

European Bio Fuel Summit 2oo8 will be held in Madrid, Spain, Palacio Municipal de Congresos de Madrid, from 22 to 24 of April.

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