German consumption of E10 blend increased by 5.4% in 2013; now 15% of shrinking market

The Federal Association of the German bioethanol industry (BDBE, Bundesverband der deutschen Bioethanolwirtschaft) announced that sales in 2013 of 10% ethanol blend (called Super E10) increased by 5.4% to 2.8 million tonnes and reached a 15% share in a shrinking market gasoline.

The current trend of a declining gasoline market continued with a decline of 0.4% in 2013. Sales of the other types of gasoline in Germany, Super Plus and Euro Super, decrease 4.0 and 0.9 percent.

The ethanol blend was introduced three years ago to a lukewarm reception by motorists. Sales in 2011 were 1.8 million tonnes; in 2012 this jumped to 2.6 million tons.

The use of the gasoline additive ETBE, which is used by the mining companies to increase the anti-knock properties of gasoline also increased, according to DBBDBE. Sales of bioethanol for this application reached 154,481 tonnes, an increase of 9.0% over the previous year.

Sales of bioethanol in E85 (up to 85% ethanol) dropped by almost 37% to 13,449 tonnes.