Pandemic slashes biofuels usage across the board in the UK

Transportation biofuels’ usage in the UK fell steeply during the second half of this year mainly due to the COVID-19 global pandemic and its repercussions.
The pandemic resulted in global lockdown measures, disrupted economic growth, led to serious job losses and severely cut domestic and international travel, according to figures put out by the UK’s transport department earlier this month.
About 440 million litres (116.24 million gallons) of liquid biofuels were consumed in the transport sector during the second quarter, a reduction of 27% when compared to the same period last year.
Ethanol consumption also dropped by almost half – 48% - to 97 million litres. Biodiesel consumption was also reduced by 17% - to 343 million litres.
Biodiesel accounted for 78% of biofuels consumption during the second quarter. Ethanol accounted for the remaining 22%.
However the data revealed the share of biofuel consumption as a proportion of total transport fuel continued to increase. Ethanol accounted for 4.6% of gasoline during the quarter, up from 4.4% in the second quarter of 2019. Biodiesel accounted for 7% of diesel consumption, up from 5.4% during the same period of last year.