German biodiesel production figures for 2018 released by VDB

The German Association of Biodiesel Producers (Verband der Deutschen Biokraftstoffindustrie, VDB) has released its 2018 biodiesel production figures, with 3.2 million tonnes of biodiesel produced by German companies throughout the year.

Of this total, rapeseed and used cooking oil accounted for the highest proportion of raw materials in biodiesel production.

According to VDB estimates, the share of rapeseed increased to 58% from 56% in 2017, while used cooking oil gained 2%, reaching 27% last year.

The production of palm-oil based biodiesel fell by 7% to just 2% of total biodiesel produced in Germany last year.

Soy-based biodiesel increased marginally to 8%, with other commodities making up the remaining 5% of German production.

The industry group added that no new investments in production facilities were made in 2018, according to the Federal Environmental Agency.

"The volatile legislation on biofuels prevents companies from investing in new technologies,” said Elmar Baumann, managing director of VDB. “The German biofuels industry makes a major contribution to climate protection in traffic, but needs a stable framework for the period after 2020 – and that does not exist in Germany.”

According to 2018 figures from the Federal Office of Economics and Export Control, approximately 2.21 million tonnes of biodiesel were consumed in Germany last year, with a considerable volume exported elsewhere in Europe.

The size of land used to grow rapeseed for biodiesel production fell from 713,000 hectares in 2017 to 560,000 hectares last year.

The original press release (in German) can be accessed here.