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Sekab 'verified sustainable ethanol' initiative halted
SEKAB Biofuels & Chemicals, an ethanol producer and supplier from Sweden, has ceased production of verified sustainable ethanol, which has been on sale for less than a year.
Last year we reported that SEKAB, supplying a whopping ninety per cent of the Swedish market for E85, launched its self-proclaimed world’s first verified sustainable ethanol. How quickly things change. A few months ago, SEKAB announced that it would cease sales of E85 altogether, sell its production plants in Tanzania and Poland and halt research into cellulosic ethanol. Such reports GAVE, a Dutch government programme supporting the implementation of the European Biofuels Guideline.
Although our Swedish is a bit rusty, we managed to retrieve snippets of information from the original article at the website of Gröna Bilister, the Swedish Association of Green Motorists.
Apparently, one of the reasons for SEKAB to halt ethanol imports is the refusal of Swedish oil companies selling the imported ethanol to motorists, to pay a premium fee for verified sustainable ethanol.
Jakob Lagercrantz, Gröna Bilister’s chairman, calls for the Swedish national government to ensure that the competence SEKAB has developed in the field of sustainability of biomass production will not go to waste. Furthermore, he says that it is up to the oil companies still in the ethanol business to take up the glove and continue to pursue sustainability requirements throughout production chains.
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