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Biodiesel production promotion - Countrywide Feasibility Study For a Potential Croatian Biodiesel Industry, Final Technical Report

The report summarised the work carried out as a part of technical assistance from UNIDO to the Government of Croatia in order to support efforts in establishing biodiesel industry in Croatia. This should lead to reduction of Croatian energy dependency and help improve the quality of the environment and diversify production and employment in agriculture and industry. The production and use of biodiesel to replace fossil fuels in transport also contribute to meeting signed commitment and targets resulting from EU Biofuels and other Directives and Kyoto Protocol. The intention of the report is to provide information and knowledge to enable taking decisions on the appropriate production chain and economic model to adopt in function of available and potential feedstock, market segments, distribution channels, promotional policies and financial mechanisms, and to provide guidelines for regulatory measures to be put in place to promote biodiesel production and market development. Biodiesel and its blends represents an excellent substitute of mineral diesel which offers a variety of benefits, increased employment, development of rural areas, increased security of energy supply and a better overall trade balance. However, biodiesel is still not cost competitive with mineral diesel without subsidies or tax incentives except in cases where petroleum prices are high in the extreme and vegetable oil prices are low. Feedstock cost is main factor affecting the competitiveness and profitability of biodiesel production. The current and potential feedstock, in terms of both availability and price, are identified and quantified, as well as, the factors that may impact the identified feedstock use for biodiesel. Consequently, the importance of the Government intervention with appropriate measures was highlighted in order to encourage the production of rapeseed and other oilseed for non-food purpose. The measures will have to ensure, at least, the quantities of feedstock required for the planned production of biodiesel, increase the yield of rapeseed per hectare and regulate market channels for produced rapeseed and include financial incentives and continuous education and expert support for farmers as the most important components. To decrease the unit production costs it is necessary to use a lower cost feedstock and or to increase the economic performance of production by carefully choosing the location of biodiesel processing plant. The use of waste edible oils as possible complimentary source or imports of cheap vegetable oils from the global market represent an interesting option especially in the initial phase of biodiesel production in Croatia. The selection of biodiesel production location in a harbour for example would provide cheaper access for transportation of feedstock and biodiesel products. The selection of appropriate process technology and plant production capacity is considered important factors influencing the financial and economic performance of the whole production operation. The selection should take into consideration a variety of factors including feedstock availability and quality, ability to process multi Promotion of Biodiesel Production in Croatia – Final Report feedstock, as well as, available market, investor intentions and plans, etc. There are numerous technologies available on the market today. However, the increasing requirements for producing high quality biodiesel according to strict fuel standards has been the driving force for switching to technologies with accurate cleaning stepsfor the final biodiesel which usually implies large scale production capacity. The results of the financial analysis undertaken show that the larger the scale of production the better the results in terms of all financial and economic indicators. Having in mind the goal of establishing a sustainable biodiesel production in Croatia and considering present higher costs of production compared to mineral diesel, it is necessary to develop and put in place a stable mechanism of financial incentives. This would include de-taxation, and, therefore, would result in a direct loss of Government revenue. However, the undertaken input-output analysis of the rapeseed biodiesel production chain has indicated that biodiesel production will contribute directly and indirectly to additional Government revenue, which would compensate for the loss in tax revenues. Due to its nature, biodiesel production and utilisation involve various sectors, interest groups and market players and like other renewable energy sources, biodiesel needs to be put in the right context and dealt carefully by integrating its socio-economic and environmental added values into the economic model.

biodiesel; production; Croatia

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