“In my opinion the maximum amount of ethanol that can be produced with European feedstock in 2030 is about 30 Million tons/year, which corresponds to 20% of today’s gasoline consumption and would include both first and second generation.” That is what Bernard Chaud, Director of biofuels projects at Teréos, says in an interview with Ethanol Statistics.
Teréos is the second largest producer in Europe and was also one of the first foreign companies to enter the Brazilian ethanol market in 2001. In the interview, Mr. Chaud discussed the outlook of Teréos, predominantly on the European market.
Although the European Commission recently concluded that a 14% market share was feasible in 2020, Mr Chaud thinks “that 14% in 2020 is feasible, but 10% is probably the maximum percentage that will be achieved. Between 2020 and 2030, ethanol market share would increase to a maximum of 20%, in which “cellulosic ethanol will probably account for 50% of the increase in production capacity.”
“It depends on yields per year and the availability of cheap biomass. When you start producing ethanol from biomass, prices will go up. Most likely, you will therefore see cycles, and depending on the year either one can be a good feedstock.”
In the full article, Mr. Chaud discusses the effects of rising commodity prices on the strategy of Teréos. Mr. Chaud remains confident about the production of ethanol on the long term, because of the continuous development of agricultural yields, the construction of more energy efficient production plants and commodity prices adjusting to increasing supply.
The entire interview with Mr. Chaud can be found
here.