Last week I had the privilege of attending the APPG for British Bioethanol dinner at Westminster.
By the end of the dinner I was even more confounded than I have been over the past few years with the state of the British Bioethanol industry. I have never been able to comprehend what is stopping government giving the go ahead for E10 (10% inclusion of bioethanol in petrol), especially considering that:
- We have a farming industry that is showing an ambition to reach Net Zero emissions by 2040 and government that has a commitment to Net Zero by 2050.
- We have a tariff schedule which is completely unsatisfactory for the arable sector.
- We have a multi-million pound plant in Hull which is currently mothballed.
I am now more confused than ever.
As I look at the above it is clear that the solution is for government to give the mandate for E10. If this was to go ahead then it would be the equivalent of taking over 700,000 cars off the road, helping to achieve the government’s greenhouse gas reduction targets and enabling farming to continue moving forward towards its net-zero ambition.
The UK is likely to produce a wheat crop of around 15.5mt this year giving us an exportable surplus of over 1.5mt. The fact that we will be moving from net importers to net exporters will already reduce the UK price by approximately £10/t, and if we then incorporate the tariffs that will be coming into play it will mean a further reduction of another £10/t.
When the tariff schedule was announced it was derisory for the arable sector. One simple solution is to give the go ahead for E10 which would increase wheat demand by approximately 1.5mt per year, creating a buffer against the impact of tariffs.
Multi-national businesses are looking for clear direction from government to justify investment in renewable energy. For the Vivergo plant it really looks like we are at last chance saloon, and unless we get E10 soon I fear that the plant will be permanently shut. What confidence does this give other companies looking at investing in next generation biofuels?
We then move to imports of high protein animal feeds. In the ethanol production process starch is converted into ethanol and the protein present in the wheat is concentrated into a high protein animal feed. This animal feed competes with imported soya in the livestock market and replaces imports of soya from North and South America – and it’s important to note here that this is soya that would be illegal to grow in the UK.
I really can’t understand why this is politically sensitive and why it hasn’t already been mandated. We all know that electric vehicles or even hydrogen could be the future, but E10 is a technology which offers a very low-cost solution, could be introduced now and could have immediate impact. It delivers on a whole range of fronts and we now ask Ministers, MP’s and the farming industry to really drive home the message: E10 is needed now.
Read more:
Crops: no-deal Brexit analysis
Agronomist & Arable Farmer: The future crop protection challenge