The EU's adoption of more stringent standards for biofuels certification schemes last week will strengthen transparency and give a boost to development of digital compliance databases, according to some in the industry.
New controls on the auditing and governance of sustainable biofuel supply chains require full digital traceability throughout the global biofuel and feedstock supply chain by 2023, introduce tighter definitions of audit checks and new restrictions on mass balancing of feedstocks.
For this, the European Commission will host a central track-and-trace database, set to become operational by 1 January 2023, to provide regulators and customers with capabilities to validate the sustainability characteristics of every liter of biofuel traded into the EU. The database will be fed by transactional data from biofuel businesses, through applications such as BioLedger, which was designed to demonstrate compliance with the EU RED II voluntary schemes.
"Digitising transactions between the 8,000 companies certified by 13 voluntary schemes in over 150 countries will be a significant challenge as it was when voluntary schemes were first introduced," said BioLedger's founder Patrick Lynch.
The company's applications internet of things, blockchain and cloud-based infrastructure.
"We want to help derisk biofuel compliance and continue to serve the supply chain by adapting out apps to support real life business operations," Lynch said.
European industry association Ewaba, which represents the EU waste-based and advanced biodiesel industry, said it supports the revision of the EU certification legislation and welcomes the more stringent standards.
"Ewaba members are already proactively introducing changes in their commercial practices," it said.
