Agri-feedstocks, the emerging backbone of Europe’s biofuel ambitions

As Europe races to decarbonise transport, biofuels are taking on renewed strategic importance. The European Commission has just published a bioeconomy strategy which recommends increasing the use of advanced biofuels for heavy transport. Europe’s energy companies are busy looking at ways to do that, and they have one major element in their sights – agri-feedstocks.

Biofuels derived from agricultural residues and non-food crops are emerging as a critical pillar of Europe’s clean-energy strategy. They are able to provide immediate emissions reductions in sectors where alternatives remain costly or technically challenging. They’re also compatible with existing transport infrastructure, particularly for Sustainable Aviation Fuels (SAF) and marine fuels.

The International Energy Agency expects a surge in demand for these fuels: by 2030, advanced biofuels from waste, residues, and non-food crops could represent more than 40% of global consumption, up from just 9% in 2021.

But biofuels also come with challenges and controversy. The EU backtracked on its original subtarget for biofuels in transport as part of the Renewable Energy Directive (RED) because it was found that the incentives to use ‘first-generation’ biofuels such as palm oil were driving indirect land use change (ILUC), diverting food crops to fuel and contributing to deforestation. Now, only second-generation biofuels can be counted toward the subtarget.

An agricultural revolution

Energy companies in Europe are examining how agri-feedstock chains can be carefully designed to be utilised for biofuels without disrupting food production or driving deforestation. This can be achieved, for instance, by utilising feedstocks derived from degraded land, rotational crops, or residues. But this will require changes to how agriculture is conducted in Europe, says Nicolò Aggogeri, head of Agribusiness at the Italian energy giant Eni, which is growing its biofuels business.

“To fully unlock the potential of biofuels in decarbonising transport, agriculture needs to undergo a strategic transformation at scale,” he says. “The key lies in integrating new cropping systems – particularly intermediate crops ­– into existing production cycles and enhancing the productivity of underutilised [degraded] land, enabling feedstock expansion without triggering additional land use or compromising food security.”

Aggogeri says there is now a clear regulatory path forward for this approach, thanks to the inclusion of intermediate crops and crops cultivated on severely degraded lands in Annex IX of the revised RED. “Achieving this shift demands innovation on several fronts,” he says.

“Agronomic practices need to be reoriented toward soil regeneration, precision agriculture and water-efficient cultivation, supported by advanced seed genetics developed specifically for resilience and oil yield performance.”

The vegetable oil path

ENI is positioning itself to supply its growing biorefining network with sustainable vegetable oils for hydrogenated vegetable oil (HVO) production. Their strategy focuses on oil-bearing plants grown on degraded or underutilised land, especially castor crops resilient to arid conditions. Rotational crops such as rapeseed and sunflower that fit into existing agricultural cycles without competing with food production are also being pursued, as well as waste and residue streams such as used cooking oils, agro-industrial residues, and forestry by-products.

“HVO can contribute to the immediate decarbonization of transport sectors, both for light vehicles, supporting the development of alternative energy carriers, and for hard-to-abate transport sectors like road heavy duty, maritime and aviation,” says Aggogeri. “It is already available biofuel, and it is a drop-in product that can be used – also in pure form – in the existing distribution infrastructures and in all engines approved for its use.”

The RED’s emissions calculation criteria say HVO enables an emissions reduction of between 60% and 90% compared to fossil fuels, he says.

Such biorefineries, called Enilive, can be found in Venice and Sicily. They process waste feedstocks such as used cooking oil and animal fat, and agro-food industry residues integrated by vegetable oil volumes. These raw materials are delivered to the biorefineries by ships and tanker trucks and stored in tanks before undergoing a number of physical and chemical treatments to convert them into biofuels.

The feedstocks processed in biorefineries consist mainly of triglycerides and fatty acids, which are converted into hydrocarbons in the Ecofining unit. The final product properties are almost identical to those of fossil-based diesel fuel.

ENI isn’t the only energy company pursuing this strategy. Neste in Finland, Europe’s largest renewable diesel and SAF producer, has built one of the world’s biggest supply chains for waste- and residue-based oils.

TotalEnergies in France is converting several French refineries into biorefineries using rapeseed, animal fats and agricultural residues. Repsol in Spain is building an advanced biofuels plant in Cartagena that will rely on agricultural residues, and BP in the UK is expanding its European biofuel capacities through joint ventures with agricultural processors using advanced ethanol-to-jet technologies.

Partnerships with Africa

ENI and others are using agri-hubs, local pressing plants that form the industrial backbone of its supply chain, which are often operated with partners. By-products from pressing are valorised into animal feed or fertilisers, but can also be used as feedstocks. ENI now has these partnerships outside Italy in eight countries: Kenya, Ivory Coast, Mozambique, Congo, Angola, Kazakhstan, Vietnam and Indonesia, with further assessments underway in Europe, Brazil, Africa and Asia.

Since 2021, ENI has built a robust agri-feedstock chain in Kenya with two agri-hubs in Makueni and Bonje, with a combined capacity of 70,000 tonnes of vegetable oil annually. In the Congo, ENI has cultivated 15,000 hectares in 2025, supported by 200 new agricultural vehicles. They’ve also launched training programmes to build mechanisation skills and create a specialised labour force, with around 400 local technicians and tractor operators involved

All of this activity needs robust certification to demonstrate its contribution to sustainability. Agri feedstock supply chains are certified according to the European sustainability scheme ISCC-EU (International Sustainability and Carbon Certification) as required by the current EU RED regulatory framework.

A recent report by the consultancy Studio Gear Up, commissioned by an ad-hoc industry consortium including BP, Chevron, Neste, Eni and Repsol, provided recommendations for certification of these intermediate crops in the RED.

The report recommends introducing a definition of intermediate crops that focuses on the role they have in providing additional feedstock volumes compared to the existing practice at a farm, and that relates to their position in the rotation scheme. It also says the Commission should widen the optionality in RED definitions to allow for intermediate crops to count toward subtargets in all transport sectors.

This article has been republished from The EURACTIV.