How do you think sustainability certifications can boost the credibility of bio-based energy products like biofuels, making them more appealing to consumers and businesses?
Bio-based energy products play an increasingly important role in the present-day life. Especially this applies to biofuels as transport is the sector which is difficult to decarbonise. The use of biofuels such as bioethanol and biodiesel can reduce GHG emissions in the sector and mitigate air pollution from vehicles. However, to be more appealing to consumers and businesses, biofuels should be sustainable, which can be proved by their certification. In fact, nowadays, people are more and more aware of the necessity to mitigate climate change, preserve biodiversity, protect ecosystems, conserve protection forests and other similar lands. That means that most conscious users strongly prefer to consume products obtained in environmentally friendly way with minimum or no harm done to the environment. This is a positive trend that should be encouraged. Sustainability certifications can boost the credibility of bio-based energy products and make them more attractive to consumers and businesses.
What are the biggest challenges bioenergy companies face when trying to get sustainability certifications, and how can they overcome these?
One of the biggest challenges for companies producing biofuels is to comply with requirements on GHG emission savings set in RED III. To meet the criteria, the production process of I-generation biofuels must be really efficient with minimal use of fossil fuels. Advanced biofuels can easily provide the required GHG emission savings; however, the relevant feedstock is not always available and production technologies are rather complex. To tackle the problem, bioenergy companies should invest in green or low-carbon energy carriers for the production process of I-generation biofuels, or invest in modern technologies for obtaining advanced biofuels. In any case, getting sustainability certifications requires certain efforts and investments which are not in vain and will pay back later.
In Ukraine, where bioenergy is a growing sector, how do you see sustainability certifications playing a role in its future development?
Lately in Ukraine, the production of biogas and biomethane has been a rapidly growing sector of far-reaching importance. Bioenergy companies have steady purpose to export biomethane to the EU. To be accepted in the European market and get high price, biomethane should meet sustainability criteria. Thus, at present biomethane producers concern themselves a lot with sustainability issues, which means that sustainability certifications will play increasingly important role in Ukraine’s bioenergy. The same may apply to Ukrainian producers of bioethanol as it is expected that this direction will develop more actively in the near future with the entry to European market.
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