De Lavigne said that in the current world situation, interest in
petroleum-based ethanol was down 70 per cent from its highest point in
2008; and in vegetable oil-based biodiesel, down nearly 80 per cent
since it was highly realised in 2005.
Interest in biodiesel
peaked in 2007 and dropped 70 per cent by the end of last year. Its
outlook was choppy, de Lavigne said in his working paper, “The future
of biodiesel in uncertain markets”.
He was sharing his views
with conference delegates at the annual Palm and Lauric Oils Conference
and Exhibition (POC) in Kuala Lumpur yesterday.
]]>
De Lavigne said that history would repeat itself as
palm oil prices were expected to rise, especially in the next two
years, which would result in the commodity being too expensive to be
used as biodiesel.
He said the price uptrend would be caused by several things happening at the same time.
However, he added that biodiesel was here to stay as numerous research
and development activities were going on to make the renewable energy
source attractive again in the future.
He also said that the
biodiesel sector needed the support of consistent and coordinated
government policies, low raw material but high energy prices, improved
feedstocks and advances in technology.
Source : Business Times by Zaidi Isham Ismail
