World biofuel production has now surpassed 100 billion litres of annual production. After accounting for energy contents, this is displacing 1.15 million barrels of crude oil derived petroleum products per day. If all of the biofuel were produced in one country, that country would effectively be the world’s 24th largest crude oil producer, after Qatar but ahead of Indonesia.
Biofuels will have to play a significant role if the world is to make meaningful reductions in carbon dioxide emissions. It is expected that advanced biofuels supply about 700 million tonnes of oil equivalent, representing 26% of total transport fuel demand, by 2050.
Global annual production of biodiesel – around 6.5 billion litres – is small compared to bioethanol. The main biodiesel feedstocks are soybean and rapeseed, with the main producers in the Americas and the EU respectively. The EU is by far the largest producer of biodiesel, responsible for 95 percent of world output. In humid tropics, oil palm is the most important biodiesel feedstock, with Indonesia leading in production followed by Malaysia. Indonesia is projected to increase biodiesel production from 600 million litres in 2007 to 3 billion litres by 2017, which will make it the world’s largest producer of palm oil and the second largest producer of biodiesel.