Official Statistics

Annex A, B and C

Published 9 December 2021

Annex A: Glossary of terms and conversion factors

Definition of biodiesel and bioethanol (Source: Chapter 6, paragraph 6.115 and 6.116 of DUKES 2017)

In the UK biodiesel is defined for taxation purposes as diesel quality liquid fuel produced from biomass or waste vegetable and animal oils and fats, the ester content of which is not less than 96.5 per cent by weight and the sulphur content of which does not exceed 0.005 per cent by weight. ^{[footnote 1]} Biodiesel can be blended in low proportions with fossil diesel for use in diesel engines. Diesel fuel currently sold at retail outlets in the UK can contain up to 7 per cent biodiesel.

Bioethanol a liquid fuel consisting of ethanol produced from biomass. Bioethanol can be blended with petrol at low proportions for use in petrol engines. Petrol currently sold in at retail outlets in the UK can contain up to 5% bioethanol. Since March 2013 a revised petrol standard (EN228) allows retailers to sell petrol containing up to 10% ethanol by volume (E10), if appropriately labelled . ^{[footnote 2]}

Conversions

• Tonnes of oil equivalent to gigajoules. 1 tonne of oil equivalent=41.868 gigajoules

Source: DUKES Chapter 1 (Energy) paragraph 1.28

• Calorific values of fuels to convert gigajoules to tonnes are available at Annex A of DUKES

• Megajoules to litres

Bioethanol= 23.6 megajoules per litre,

Biodiesel= 34.4 megajoules per litre.

Source: Direct from DECC Energy Statistics team

• Litres to tonnes

429 litres biodiesel = 1 tonne oilseed rape

101 litres bioethanol = 1 tonne sugar beet

367 litres bioethanol = 1 tonne wheat grain

317 litres of bioethanol = 1 tonne of barley

418 litres of bioethanol = I tonne of maize

Source: Department for Transport and The National Non-Food Crops Centre

Annex B: Background information on key data sources

B.1 Use of statistics

Annual estimates of crop areas of oilseed rape, sugar beet, wheat, maize, miscanthus, short rotation coppice and straw crops grown in the UK for use as bioenergy are used by government policy advisors, non-food crop promoters and processors.

Blended in small quantities with fossil fuels, bioethanol (used in petrol) and biodiesel (used in diesel) can be used in today’s road vehicles. These biofuels play an important role in the UK plan to meet the target set in the European Renewable Energy Directive 2009 (EU Directive 2009/28/EC) for 10% of final energy consumption in the transport sector to be supplied from renewable sources by 2020.

The Renewable Transport Fuels Obligation (RTFO) is one of the Government’s main policies for reducing greenhouse gas emissions from road transport in the UK by encouraging the supply of renewable fuels. Obligated suppliers must supply a certain percentage of their road transport fuel as biofuel, or purchase Renewable Transport Fuel Certificates or pay in to the buy-out fund for the shortfall.

The use of biofuels also supports other Government objectives to improve security of energy supply and rural development. ^{[footnote 3]}

B.2 Data sources

These statistics, which are from a range of sources, are a secondary analysis of data that have already been published. Although much of the source data are published as National Statistics, there are limitations to these statistics and these are described within each section.

B.2.1 The June Survey of Agriculture and Horticulture

The June Survey of Agriculture and Horticulture collects information from farmers on the area of crops grown in the UK at the 1st June each year. In general farmers are not asked about their intended end use for the crops. For crops such as oilseed rape, wheat and sugar beet, where there are multiple end uses, reference has been made to other existing data sources on usage in order to try and establish the crop production and area associated with crops grown for bioenergy by applying appropriate conversion factors to the data collected on biofuel production. From 2014 the June Survey asked farmers to indicate the intended end use of their maize to help determine the proportion intended for used as an anaerobic digestion feedstock.

Latest June Survey UK results.

B.2.2 Renewable Transport Fuels Obligation (RTFO)

The Department for Transport (and the Renewable Fuels Agency pre-2011) produce statistics on the volumes of biofuels supplied to the UK road market under the Renewable Transport Fuels Obligation (RTFO). Published reports include information on the volumes of fuel supplied to the UK road market:

• by fuel type (e.g. biodiesel, bioethanol);
• by feedstock (e.g. oilseed rape, used cooking oil, sugar beet);
• by country of origin (e.g. UK); and
• whether it meets sustainability standards and the lifecycle greenhouse gas savings of fuels.

Therefore it is possible to derive information on the volumes of UK grown crops and equivalent crop areas which have been used to supply biofuel to the UK road transport market.

Prior to December 2011 these data were supplied monthly to the RTFO Administrator by fuel suppliers and were verified annually. Reports are released quarterly. Verified year 1 (April 2008 to March 2009), verified year 2 (April 2009 to March 2010) are available and verified year 3 (April 2010 to March 2011) data are all available on the Department for Transport website.

Since the implementation of the Renewable Energy Directive ^{[footnote 4]} in December 2011 data must be verified prior to submission to the RTFO Administrator. This is a European Directive which sets out sustainability criteria which biofuels must meet in order to count towards Member State’s targets. These criteria cover protection of land (carbon stocks and biodiversity) and set minimum greenhouse gas savings that increase over time. The verified data are available on the renewable fuel statistics collection page

The RTFO data include:

• Biofuels from UK grown and imported crops (these are presented sep arately in the tables)
• Biofuels supplied to the UK road transport sector
• Data from organisations that supply more than 450,000 litres of road transport fuel in a given year. These obligated companies supply more than 95% of the biofuels in the UK market.
• Data from suppliers of less than 450,000 litres a year where they have chosen to apply for Renewable Transport Fuel Certificates.

The RTFO data exclude:

• UK biofuel or biofuel feedstock production which may subsequently be exported.
• Producers of less than 450,000 litres of road transport fuel per year who do not claim Renewable Transport Fuel Certificates (RTFCs). However it is not expected that there are many small producers excluded from the RTFO statistics.
• Prior to the implementation of the Renewable Energy Directive23 (RED) in December 2011, biofuel producers who did not use any fossil fuels (i.e. only supplied biofuels) and did not claim Renewable Transport Fuel Certificates were excluded. For the same reason as above, it is not expected that there were many of these excluded from the RTFO statistics. Following the implementation of the RED only biofuel producers who supply less than 450,000 litres are excluded.

B.2.3 Renewable Energy Statistics (RESTATS) Questionnaire

From 2010, to estimate the volume of biofuels produced in the UK, an annual renewable energy survey has been carried out by The Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS), formally The Department for Energy and Climate Change). Neither HMRC nor RTFO figures can be used for this purpose since they include both UK produced fuels and imports. The survey is carried out by Ricardo Energy & Environment on behalf of BEIS. The production companies are contacted directly in combination with a survey of UK biofuels production capacity that is required by the EU (Reg. 833/2010). The data include estimates for very small scale production (for personal use), though this makes a very small contribution to the totals.

The reports include UK production of biodiesel and bioethanol, the proportion supplied to the UK road market and the percent of biofuel from UK sources together with information on production capacity.

Further details are available on page 7 of the Liquid Biofuels survey methodology.

Data from the renewable energy survey also feeds into the Digest of UK Energy Statistics (DUKES) which is again produced by The Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy. The digest is a comprehensive source of energy information.

B.2.4 Cereal and Oilseed Rape Production Survey

The Cereal and Oilseed Rape Production Survey gathers data on production tonnages and moisture content for various cereal and oilseed crops. It also verifies data gathered from the June Survey of Agriculture on planted areas for these crops. These data are then used to calculate average yield estimates for each crop type. These were used in calculations of the areas of crops used for biofuel production. From 2014 questions on straw production and usage were asked, however in 2018 only questions on production were included with area and yield excluded. Latest results from the cereal and oilseed rape production survey.

B.2.5 Energy crops scheme

Farmers were able to claim subsidies under the Energy Crops Scheme (ECS) to assist with the establishment of miscanthus and short rotation coppice as part of the Rural Development Programme for England (RDPE). This scheme was administered by Natural England and comprised two rounds:

• ECS1 (2000-2006/7) which paid a flat rate to help farmers establish new plantings of the crop
• ECS2 (2007-2013) which pays 50% of all costs incurred in establishing the crop

The second Energy Crops scheme closed in 2013 although planting for the scheme could be undertaken in 2013, 2014 and 2015.

B.2.6 Ofgem Renewable Obligation Annual Report - Biomass Sustainability Dataset

The concept of sustainability was introduced into the Renewables Obligation (RO) in April 2009 and required operators to submit information on the sustainability of their fuels to Ofgem. The report contains profiling information submitted by the operator regarding the sustainability characteristics of their fuel such as: type of biomass, form of biomass, country of origin and whether it conforms to any environmental quality assurance standards. Datasets for each year are available on the Ofgem renewable obligations collection page

B.2.7 RHI Deployment data

The Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy publish a monthly statistical series regarding deployment of the non-domestic Renewable Heat Incentive (RHI) scheme, introduced in November 2011, and the domestic RHI scheme introduced in April 2014. This dataset includes information regarding applications, installations and heat generated under the scheme.

B.2.8 NNFCC Anaerobic Digestion Deployment in the United Kingdom

This report is produced annually by the NNFCC, and collects data for existing and planned anaerobic digestion facilities across the UK. The report contains information regarding feedstock, estimated cropping area and installed capacity for all anaerobic digestion plants contained in the NNFCC anaerobic digestion deployment database. The data contained in the 7th annual report (April 2019-April 2020) was used in this publication.

Annex C: Background information on sugar beet used for bioenergy

Production of sugar from beet in the UK has been governed by EU regulations, collectively known as the EU sugar regime. In 2006 there was substantial reform of the EU sugar regime, aimed at reducing EU sugar production to more sustainable levels. Key changes included reductions in beet sugar production quotas and changes in the rules applying to any sugar made in excess of the quotas. British Sugar are the sole quota holder in the UK and the reforms led to significant restructuring of their business, with closure of the Allscott and York factories after the 2006/07 campaign and contract tonnage re-allocated to growers closer to the remaining four factories. Furthermore, the UK’s first bioethanol plant was constructed at the Wissington factory. Opening in November 2007, it provided an outlet for sugar beet produced above the quota. From 2008/9 onwards the quota was 1,056,474 tonnes of sugar (equivalent to around 6 million tonnes of sugar beet). This quota applied until 30 September 2017, after which sugar production quotas were abolished.

Data reported under the RTFO have been used to estimate the equivalent tonnage and crop area of sugar beet used to produce bioethanol (Figure 1.2).

Go to Summary

Go to Section 1 - Biofuels

Go to Section 2 - Plant biomass: miscanthus, Short Rotation Coppice and straw

Go to Section 3 - Anaerobic digestion

1. Biofuels and other fuel substitutes (Excise Notice 179e) - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk) ↩

2. Motor Fuel Composition and Content Regulations – extension of petrol protection grade requirement IA (publishing.service.gov.uk) ↩

3. £15m fund for rural energy projects opens to applications - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk) ↩

4. Renewable energy – directive, targets and rules Energy (europa.eu) ↩