biofuels
why this industry - why vivergo?
Vivergo Fuels and Biofuels bridges the gap between the oil industry and agriculture, a way of meeting tomorrow’s energy needs today.
The increasing demand for Biofuels is due to:
- Growing need for energy security; particularly as fossil fuel reserves run increasingly low
- Need to reduce Green House Gas emissions
- Agricultural support
A case of ‘Back to the Future’?
Biofuels have actually been around for a very long time with the 1908 Ford Model T being designed to use ethanol before oil was readily available. It was only when oil became cheaper and easily available that it became the preferred feedstock for fuel production.
The 1970s energy crisis in Brazil reintroduced cars that ran on ethanol made from sugar cane and since then ethanol has become a core government policy tool in Brazil to reduce oil imports and to support the rural economy. It is now the world’s second largest ethanol producer with the US being the largest. In the mid 1990s the USA started to develop biofuel policies to start reducing the reliance on oil imported from countries where political stability may be a significant risk to supplies.
Biofuels in Europe
Europe’s ethanol industry is relatively new and has largely developed since 2003, when the EU set into place a Directive for the introduction of biofuels as part of the challenge to reduce the greenhouse gas emissions from the transport sector.
The UK introduced legislation to create the Road Transport Fuel Obligation (RTFO) in 2005 setting out targets for use of biofuels up to 2010. BP, British Sugar and DuPont thus came together in 2006 with a joint project team to investigate the biofuel opportunity and Vivergo was born.
Since the formation of Vivergo, Europe has underlined its commitment to biofuels with the agreement of the Renewable Energy Directive (RED) in December 2008 requiring a 10% energy contribution from renewable transport fuels by 2020. Also the Fuels Quality Directive (FQD) has been reviewed to include a target for 6% reduced emissions from each litre of fuel by 2020, much of which is expected to be as a result of using biofuels.
Vivergo Fuels brings together a unique partnership that covers expertise across all aspects of the biofuels supply chain – agriculture, technology, manufacturing, fuels – and is ideally positioned for taking advantage of future technology developments as they become viable.
