Report from Roundtable: Financing further development of advanced biofuel production in The Netherlands

Background

Dutch Platform Renewable Fuels held a roundtable meeting with two international experts, Mr. Jim Spaeth and Mr. Kyriakos Maniatis to discuss how the Netherlands can further accelerate the scale-up of advanced biofuel production.

This roundtable event was organised in response to the final conclusions of a public-private taskforce (27 June 2025), which examined the future of fuel and chemical production in the Netherlands. The timing of this meeting has been chosen with the upcoming national elections in mind. The goal of the discussion was to inform a new government programme about the importance of establishing an ambitious strategy to support the expansion of advanced biofuel production capacity. Additionally, the government has commissioned the Dutch knowledge institute TNO to investigate the necessary support measures for further development of feedstock production for renewable fuels. This roundtable session served as input for their research.

Summary

In the context of increasing mandates for the transport sectors, advanced biofuels provide a valuable economic opportunity for green growth in the Netherlands, also considering their link with green feedstocks for the chemical manufacturing sector and for carbon removal markets. To accelerate the deployment of advanced biofuels, developing a supportive ecosystem under the initiative and strong leadership of a government is crucial. As a country with advanced biofuels innovation, market leadership, key market players already developing advanced biofuels projects, technology developments and recognised academic institutions, the Netherlands already holds important elements in its ecosystem to support the growth of an advanced biofuel industry for its own demand andthe European market.

The current EU legislative landscape is complex, and the stringent categorisation of biofuel feedstocks and long developing time for technology do not provide a sufficiently attractive ground for investors and parties to deploy advanced biofuels on large scale in Europe. Conditions in other world regions offer moresupportive regulatory conditions and programs. Although European regulation is complex and difficult to change, member states governments must support with setting clear and ambitious goals, remain committed to them, and support them with effective policy instruments. Strong leadership is essential to give industry the confidence and investment security it needs. Existing transport mandates already show the ramp up needed for renewable liquid and gaseous fuel volumes. This growth in demand for fuels requires instruments to support industry to build up the necessary production capacity and set-up sufficient feedstock supply for the various transport demand markets, in the Netherlands, and in other European member states. High ambition for the expansion of advanced biofuels production capacity offers a strong signal to promote investments, innovation and growth, setting a positive feedback loop that the Ministry of Water and Infrastructure Management can help accelerate. Moreover, the idea that mandates can largely be fulfilled with imported renewable fuels, becomes more challenging in a geopolitical context where currently exporting countries and other markets impose their own mandates, creating increasing competition over feedstocks and fuels.

Historically the Netherlands has been a trading country and has not been hindered by the lack of local resources. The Netherlands has flourished from trading, importing, adding value to materials and resources to sell them to other markets. The Netherlands can act as a pipeline to process and sell high volumes of fuels. Instead of waiting for Europe to change and simplify its legislation, it must take a leading role in developing the producing and processing capacity for advanced biofuels, to serve the national as well as the European internal market demand.

Takeaways- Developing an ecosystem for the development of advanced biofuels

• The concept of an ecosystem is recently entering the EU policy jargon for the decarbonisation of transport. An ecosystem is necessary to create and recognised by other countries like India to enable the development of advanced biofuels.
• A successful ecosystem for the scale-up of advanced biofuels must consist ofstable long-term policy, reliable technology, viable value chains, strong industry engagement and leadership, adequate and not complex financial support,operational market and social acceptance.
• Biofuels are part of a global industry which is part of a larger ecosystem. Its trade is sensitive to national and local policy changes. Europe will have to act fast to secure renewable fuel and feedstock volumes.
• In Europe, the Renewable Energy Directive provides a framework for the developmentof advanced biofuels, but the complex legislative landscape and ever-changing legislations, and rules for feedstocks, result in instability and undermineinvestor confidence.
• Technology for advanced biofuels is already available and deployed on commercial scale. The commercially and readily available technologies are:
  
  • Biologicalprocessing via anaerobic fermentation of wet biomass and residues.
  • Thermochemicalprocessing such as hydrotreatment of wastes and residues oils.
• Other technologies such as production of ethanol from cellulosic feedstocks, gasification and Fischer-Tropsch are still in progress.
• It takes a minimum of 10 to 15 years to develop technology and have a facility upand running.
• Advanced biofuel production projects might fail because of failing ecosystem conditions,with Clariant in Romania as a clear example which Kyriakos Maniatis talked about. The project came to light but was not supported by government and found issues to secure continuous feedstocks supply. Also not adopting the E20standards (developed by the CEN) has taken away a strong market incentive.
  
  • Longterm supply contracts are essential to the viability of a commercial facility
  • It had to close down and has since been retrofitted for conventional (1^stgen) ethanol production
• For the successful scale-up of advanced biofuels, it is important to support the complete value chain, from the grain, residue and the inputs for the feedstock, technology development, to the end of the chain with offtake agreements.
• Support and incentives for biofeedstock mobilisation is absent in Europe (other global regions provide incentives)
• The Netherlands is a country of innovation with regards to advanced fuels, or materials like the example of Avantium shows, and market leadership, presenting a significant opportunity for government to support Dutch biofuel industry. However, investors are mostly driven by long-term returns.
• Kyriakos Maniatis suggests that Dutch government could support the biofuel industry by providing financial support for applications to Innovation Fund, Connecting Europe Facility (CEF) and European Investment Bank applications.
• In addition, government can provide loan guarantees for first of a kind andcommercial facility, create a national fund to invest in biofuel plants andsupport the development of complete value chains.
• Government must invest now in the technologies that are already readily available instead of waiting for a perfect solution. As both Kyriakos Maniatis and Jim Spaeth mentioned, “let’s not let the perfect be the death of the good.”
• In other countries such as China and India, we observe an increased biomass productivity, use of abandoned and degraded land backed strong government support.
• The development of advanced biofuels is a huge opportunity for The Netherlands as the country serves many European sectors – there is thus a large opportunity to serve mandated market.

Recommendations for the Netherlands to support advanced biofuel production

• There is the need to develop an ecosystem including stable long-term policy, operational market and viable supply chains to foster advanced biofuel development and enable commercialisation.
• The involvement of public-private partnerships and big industry players such as Shell are needed in the ecosystem.
• The Dutch government should cut corners in the implementation of RED 3 by creating its own framework to allow flexibility from industries and promote investment in advanced biofuel production.
• The process to apply for European funds is difficult and costly, government should provide financial support to companies through the application process.
• Technology development, market support, finance and policy are all needed for a successful development. Each of these elements can be backed by government. It is a matter of consistency and stable commitment for at least 3 or 5 years to enable industries to develop.
• The Dutch government should follow the path of other European Scandinavian countries that have created successful conditions for the upscale of advanced biofuels.
• The Dutch government should approach the European Commission with a proposition to have a fossil fuel directive, which addresses the downscale of fossil fuel use instead of focusing on the mandates for renewables - forcing companies to decrease the volumes they produce and incentivising them to invest in a growing and green competitive markets for renewables.

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