The stage is set for the annual Biofuels Conference and Expo which will take place on May 16-17 – not long now.

The event will once again take place at the Hotel Le Plaza in Brussels, which so successfully hosted the conference last year following a two-year absence due to the pandemic.

Other speakers will include Karl Fielder, the CEO Neutral Fuels, who strongly believes that waste edible oils are the best feedstock for biofuels.

He said: “The European Federation for Transport and Environment stated in April 2021 that Europe’s demand for used cooking oil (UCO) to power its transport [as biodiesel] could double in 2030, leaving it increasingly reliant on imports.

“In January 2021, it was estimated by Greenea that in 2020, 133 kT of used cooking oil (UCO) was exported from the Middle East to Europe representing approximately 10% of European UCO imports.

“With the increased awareness of the carbon saving benefits of biofuels, governments around the world are seeing waste and especially UCO as a precious national resource and are taking steps, in line with the 1992 Basel Convention on Waste, to ban or supertax the export of UCO.

“With three biodiesel producers in Dubai, the UAE has taken the regional lead in the local production of biodiesel from local waste, and in 2021 the UAE diesel standard was amended in readiness for a B7 mandate.

“In 2018, India banned the export of UCO, Abu Dhabi did the same in 2022, and later that year Indonesia temporarily implemented a UCO export ban. At least 15 other non-EU countries are currently considering either banning or supertaxing the export of UCO.”

What is the background to this, and what are the challenges to both the European Union as importer and to the countries implementing UCO export restrictions? Fielder aims to enlighten guests and delegates with his thoughts on this important topic.