 

Production and consumption

Europe’s fuel ethanol sector was a slow starter. It took almost 10
years to grow production from 60 mio litres in 1993 to 525 in 2004. In
the following 2 years we saw a true explosion in production. In 2005 and
2006 there were double-digit growth levels of over 70%. However, it was
not a sustainable growth; in 2007 production increased by ‘only’
11%.

Compared to the U.S.A. and Brazil but also the biodiesel sector the EU
fuel alcohol sector is rather small. The U.S.A. nowadays produces every
month more than the EU has produced in 2007 in total. Moreover, the EU
biofuel market is still predominantly a biodiesel market (80%). 

 

Global Ethanol Production for Fuel (2006) 

The top 4 EU producers of ethanol are France, Germany, Spain and Poland.
The top 6 consumers are Germany, Sweden, France, Spain, Poland and the
UK. Overall consumption of fuel ethanol in 2007 is estimated between 2.5
and 2.7 bn litres whereas total production was around 1.77 bn litres.
The gap was filled by ethanol from, almost exclusively, Brazil (98% of
total imports originating from Brazil). Last year ethanol imports were
equal to 45% of EU production and over 30% of total consumption. 



Website: European Bioethanol Fuel Association;
http://www.ebio.org/EUmarket.php

