More biodiesel than renewable diesel in German blends for 2025 quota year

For the 2025 calendar and quota year, biodiesel consumption in Germany shows a clear upward trend compared to the historically weak previous year.

Hydrotreated vegetable oil (HVO) volumes fell short of the previous year’s level because quota obligations could be met more cost-effectively using biodiesel within the technical cap—the fuel standard for diesel (B7).

It is noticeable that, at the same time, sales of pure renewable diesel (HVO100) increased.

In 2025, biodiesel incorporation in blends was generally at a stable level with monthly fluctuations.

After 181,400 metric tons in January, consumption reached a preliminary record high of 214,868 tons in February.

In the months that followed, consumption fluctuated between approximately 180,000 tons and 200,000 tons and declined slightly towards the end of the year, falling to 182,230 tons in December.

The largest volume of HVO was used in March 2025, totaling 24,300 tons.

Over the remainder of the year, monthly volumes slipped below 10,000 tons, with one exception in June.

The lowest value, 3,600 tons, was recorded in November.

According to information published by Agrarmarkt Informations-Gesellschaft (mbH), the use of biodiesel for blending in the 2025 calendar year totaled just under 2.2 million tons, which was up around 12 percent year on year.

The HVO volume amounted to approximately 118,900 tons, representing a 17 percent decline compared with 2024.

At 31.2 million tons, the use of diesel fuel exceeded the previous year’s level by just over 2 percent.

It should be noted that, according to figures from Germany’s Federal Office for Economic Affairs and Export Control (BAFA), the marketing of HVO100 has grown significantly to approximately 132,700 tons, whereas biodiesel as a pure fuel (B100) plays a minor role at approximately 6,015 tons.

The Union zur Förderung von Oel- und Proteinpflanzen e. V. (UFOP) has noted that the success of the petroleum industry’s HVO100 sales campaign is clearly evident, even though the fuel is more expensive than biodiesel.

From UFOP’s perspective, the 2025 quota year once again confirms the compensation effect resulting from double counting biofuels derived from certain waste-based feedstock coupled with efficiency in reducing greenhouse-gas (GHG) emissions.

This is because these feedstocks are accounted for in the GHG-balance calculation with a GHG value of zero grams of CO2.

Although the Bundesanstalt für Landwirtschaft (Federal Office for Agriculture and Food, or BLE) will not publish its evaluation report for 2025 until the end of the year, UFOP said it expects the feedstock composition to be similar to that of the previous year.

For the 2026 quota year, according to UFOP, physical demand is expected to rise as a result of the GHG-quota obligation being raised from 10.6 percent to 12.1 percent and the retroactive elimination of double counting as of January.

UFOP said it is currently impossible to assess whether and to what extent GHG-emissions trading will nevertheless reduce physical demand.

The association has therefore strongly criticized BAFA, as the competent authority, for having failed for months to fulfill its obligation to publish monthly consumption figures for fossil fuels and biofuels in a timely manner.