Research
Biofuels in Canada 2023: Tracking biofuel consumption, feedstocks and avoided greenhouse gas emissions
October, 2023
Summary
Navius Research has released the 2023 edition of “Biofuels in Canada”. This analysis uses public data to catalog the volume of transportation biofuels consumed in each Canadian province, while estimating the impact of biofuel consumption on greenhouse gas emissions and transportation energy costs from 2010 to 2021, with an estimate for 2022. It includes a similar analysis of fuel and GHG impacts resulting from the use of light-duty electric vehicles and co-processed renewable fuels.
Highlights:
- Ethanol consumption has increased from 1,700 million L/yr in 2010 to 2,876 million L/yr in 2021, nearly rebounding to its pre-COVID 2019 levels.
- The blend rate of renewable fuels in gasoline surpassed 7% in 2021, while biomass-based diesel consumption accounted for 3.5% of the volume of blended diesel fuel.
- Annual avoided greenhouse gas emissions from renewable fuel consumption increased to almost 6.5 MtCO2e/yr in 2021. The adoption of light-duty plug-in electric vehicles displaced 262 million L/yr of gasoline in 2021, avoiding an additional 0.8 MtCO2e/yr.
- Biofuel consumption has had little net impact on fuel expenditures in Canada from 2010-2021, relative to a scenario without biofuel consumption. We estimate an average $7/yr savings for a typical light-duty vehicle and $340/yr cost for a typical diesel-fueled heavy-duty vehicle.
- Because of differences in fuel energy densities and fuel costs, consumers in Canada have paid more taxes as a result of biofuel blending and consumption, relative to a scenario without biofuel consumption. These “surtaxes” have grown to a cumulative total of $3.5 billion from 2010 through to the end of 2021.
Click the image above to download the report.
Click the image above to be redirected to ABFC’s website to request the spreadsheet model.
Download the report here, or request the spreadsheet model on the ABFC’s website.
This study was commissioned and funded by Advanced Biofuels Canada.
To learn more about this research, please contact Michael Wolinetz.
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