Biodiesel leads to more rape cultivation

Biodiesel costs twice as much to produce as conventional diesel. To promote sales, biodiesel in Germany has been exempt from standard fuel duty. In August 2006 this tax exemption was partially abolished and is to see further step-by-step cuts up to 2012. In order to secure sales of biodiesel despite this move, obligatory blending has been introduced - conventional diesel must now be blended with five per cent biodiesel.

Rape oil is the only raw material used in Europe for the production of biodiesel. It is extracted from the plant seeds in oil mills and then processed into biodiesel in manufacturing plants (chemical name: rape methyl ester). Rape seeds have a 40 to 50% oil content. Between 1300 and 1700 litres of biodiesel can be produced from an average yield of three to four tonnes of rape seed per hectare under cultivation.

Production and sales: Biodiesel production in Germany is growing rapidly. In 1998 around 50,000 tonnes of biodiesel were produced. By 2005 this had already increased to 2.3 million tonnes. In 2007 the biodiesel processing capacity is 4.8 million tonnes. Domestic sales of biodiesel were around 1.8 million tonnes in 2005. It is sold as pure fuel or blended with conventional diesel.

Crop areas: Increased demand for rape by biodiesel manufacturers has led to a huge expansion of the area under cultivation in Germany. In 2005 rape was grown on around 1.3 million hectares or just short of eleven percent of all arable land. More than two thirds of this rape acreage, or around 900,000 hectares, was for biodiesel production. A further 100,000 hectares supply rape for other industrial applications, such as industrial oils and greases. The remaining area is used for the production of rape for the food and animal feed industry.

Farmers are allowed to grow rape on set-aside land, provided that the harvested crop is only used in the non-food sector. Subject to certain constraints, they can obtain an EU energy crop payment amounting to €45 per hectare of rape cultivation, if they grow the energy crops on non-set-aside land. Both measures provide additional income for farmers and guarantee the provision of raw material for the biodiesel industry.

A future with only biosiesel? By 2006 Germany will have already reached the European Union target for 2010 by producing 5.75% of diesel consumption from biomass. The continued growth of rape cultivation is subject to both natural and agricultural limitations. Experts estimate that the cultivation potential for rape in Germany is 1.6 to a maximum of 1.8 million hectares. If 1.5 million hectares of this are used for biodiesel production in the future, Germany could produce more than 2 million tonnes of biodiesel from local raw materials. However, as diesel consumption currently stands at around 30 million tonnes a year in Germany, biodiesel can only make up a tiny fraction of total diesel consumption.