Bioethanol has long since established itself as the number one biofuel across the world and the bioethanol market has continued to expand rapidly in recent years. The increasing use of bioethanol as a replacement for fossil fuels has been pushed for years now in Brazil and the USA. In the European Union, the first Biofuels Directive in 2003 laid the first foundations for European production of bioethanol. Against the background of the existing regulations on biofuels in the EU, market researchers are predicting a dynamic growth in the European bioethanol market.

CropEnergies is well prepared for the strong growth of the bioethanol market in Europe and will be one of the companies with a major share in it. Together with its subsidiaries in Germany, Belgium, and France, CropEnergies AG is expanding ist annual production to over 700,000 m³ of bioethanol in the financial year 2008/9.

Of the estimated 62 million m³ of ethanol produced around the world in 2007, around 80% (49.5 million m³) was used in fuel applications. World leader in the production of bioethanol is the USA with just under 25 million m³, followed by Brazil, with 20 million m³.

In the USA, bioethanol is primarily used as a 10% petrol additive. In Brazil, bioethanol is offered both as a pure fuel (E100) as well as blended with traditional petrol with an additive proportion of 20 to 25%. Around 85% of the new vehicle registrations in Brazil are flexible fuel vehicles (FFVs), which means they can run either on regular petrol or on bioethanol or with a blend of both.

As a result of the Biofuels Directive of 2003 and its implementation by the EU member states, both the use and the production of bioethanol has been rising steadily in the EU.
In 2004, there was a total bioethanol production in Europe of around 528,000 m³. By 2006, production had already more than trebled, to some 1.6 million m³ and reached approximately 1.8 million m³ in 2007 of which 22 % were produces in Germany. With further implementation of the Biofuels Directive 2003/30/EC, and in particular the Renewable Energies Directive, currently in draft stage, which will prescribe a binding 10% biofuel proportion by the year 2020, it is anticipated that there will be a strong increase in the demand for bioethanol in the countries in the EU. The EU estimates that the demand for bioethanol in 2020 will be 16.5 million tonnes mineral oil equivalent, which corresponds to 33.33 million m³ of bioethanol.

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Biofuel Directive 2003/30/EC (PDF, 119.2 KB)

In Germany since January 1, 2007, there has been an mandatory blending for biofuel to fossil fuels with differing proportions for petrol and diesel fuel. The proportion for bioethanol addition to petrol, starting from 1.2% in 2007, will initially increase each year until 2010 by 0.8%. If we accept the forecasts by the mineral oil economic association on the consumption of petrol in Germany as a basis, the demand for bioethanol in Germany will increase by the year 2010 to over 1.5 million m³ merely by fulfilling the quotas laid down for mandatory blending. Compared with the total sales of bioethanol in Germany in the year 2007, this means a three-fold increase.