This record-high sustainability score for renewable ethanol represents a 16-year trend of European renewable ethanol approaching carbon-neutrality. It also confirms the importance of ethanol as a replacement for fossil fuel in the petrol and hybrid cars that Europeans continue to prefer.
“The EU’s need to reduce its dependence on foreign oil has never been more urgent, and these new audited figures confirm that renewable ethanol has an important role to play” said Craig Winneker, Acting Secretary General of ePURE, the European renewable ethanol association. “The data also show yet again that EU renewable ethanol production creates important co-products, including food, feed and biogenic CO2 to replace fossil CO2 in industrial applications. The tired old ‘food vs fuel’ myth is not just wrong, it’s counterproductive to achieving EU goals for climate change mitigation, energy independence, food security, and agricultural competitiveness.”
The high GHG saving performance of EU ethanol was accompanied by significant production of food and feed co-products (6.6 million tonnes of commercial product) and of captured biogenic CO2 (1.2 million tonnes) – more ways in which ethanol production contributes to EU food security and offsets fossil resources.
Once again, European bioethanol refineries produced more food and feed co-products than renewable ethanol – more food than fuel.
The 2025 findings were compiled from ePURE members and other EU producers and certified by auditing firm Copartner.
ePURE’s membership includes 20 producing companies with around 50 refineries across the EU and UK, accounting for about 85 percent of EU renewable ethanol production.
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