Feedstocks for Biodiesel production in Greece

Biodiesel production in Greece can rely on a number of indigenous feedstocks with sunflower and cottonseed oils being the most promising current options. Rapeseed was introduced at experimental level a few years ago and its cultivation is at the moment at pilot and demonstration levels in several regions. The main drive for this has been the EC Directive 2003/30 and the increased demand from the biodiesel-producing companies.

Concerning future potential feedstocks like tomato seed oil and tobacco seed oil, laboratory test results on fuel quality lead to positive results for their future potential in the production of biodiesel. Combining that with the cultivated area, their respective biodiesel potential is high. It is generally believed that they can play an important role (especially the tomato seed oil) in the resource matrix in the long-term resource supply base.

In addition to the technical, economic and environmental considerations examined in this paper there is a number of critical issues that are expected to influence the future availability and supply of indigenous biomass feedstocks for biodiesel in the country concerning mainly land availability, climate change and agricultural lifestyle.

Land availability and quality will define the amount and type of feedstocks produced over the coming years. The use of low fertility, marginal land has been examined in a number of recent studies. However, production in marginal lands has to meet both economic and sustainable criteria in order to become competitive.

Climate change is likely to have a significant impact on both the availability of biomass as well as on feedstock types produced and their regional distribution. Greece already experiences dry arid conditions during the growing period of the crops examined in this paper, and future projections for the region are not positive stating that the increased risk of drought could lead to productivity losses and extreme weather conditions can significantly influence the supply of biomass feedstock.

Improve  the efficiency  of  agricultural lifestyle, finding new development pathways that lead to optimized sustainable production will also be a key issue for securing the supply of biomass feedstocks. This includes aspects of  optimized  water  management,  alternative  cropping strategies, etc.

So far, it is clear that indigenous biodiesel production in Greece will have to rely on a matrix of feedstocks with distinct features in terms of logistics and fuel quality.

Careful synergetic steps should be planned across the supply chain in order to ensure continuous resource flow throughout the year, capture the elements of land availability and future climatic conditions and avoiding major competition issues with the existing markets at local, regional and national level.