Argus Biofuels Europe Conference & Exhibition

Collect your badge and explore the Argus Biofuels Europe Conference & Exhibition. Grab your morning coffee from our barista stand ahead of the start of the Marine focus day.

*The exhibition area on Tuesday 20 October is open to Marine, SAF, or Networking ticket passholders access only. Select 'Biofuels & Marine Ticket' when registering for access to the Marine Focus Day sessions and content.

• IMO Mid-Term Measures: How is the IMO approaching fuel pathways, including methane-based fuels, and what signal does this send for long-term investment?
• How is the IMO balancing ambition, technical feasibility, and economic impact in shaping its net zero framework?
• How is IMO navigating divergence among member states around the Net-Zero Framework? What can IMO do to bridge the gap?
• What are the key milestones to 2030 and beyond, and where should industry stakeholders focus today to remain aligned with evolving regulation?

• Where are EU ETS and FuelEU Maritime compliance costs actually landing in the value chain and who has successfully passed them on?
• Are FuelEU Maritime penalties already strong enough to shift fuel choice toward biofuels and alternatives, or is least-cost compliance still dominating decisions?
• How are early compliance cycles under EU ETS and FuelEU Maritime revealing gaps between policy design and real-world commercial shipping behaviour?
• How are regulatory frameworks influencing day-to-day decisions on bunker procurement, routing, and fuel strategy across the shipping industry?
  
  

• Why are bunker price spreads widening between Europe and key global hubs, and what does this signal for future trade flows?
• How is biofuel demand reshaping marine bunker consumption, and what does it mean for fuel mix and regional demand shifts?
• Where are we seeing emerging supply tightness or surplus in marine fuels, and how is this feeding into price volatility and arbitrage opportunities?
• To what extent is EU regulation structurally reshaping marine fuel demand rather than just creating short-term compliance-driven spikes?
  
  

• Is Europe’s current port and bunker infrastructure ready to support large-scale marine biofuel and alternative fuel uptake across key hubs?
• Where are the real bottlenecks limiting scale-up - storage capacity, logistics, port readiness, or regulatory fragmentation?
• How are EU certification systems and FuelEU Maritime / EU ETS frameworks shaping infrastructure investment decisions and risk appetite?
• What clearer policy signals or commercial mechanisms are needed to unlock coordinated investment across the marine fuel supply chain?

• Where are the biggest misalignments in the marine fuel value chain today in terms of cost allocation, risk exposure, fuel adoption, and financing?
• How are EU ETS, FuelEU Maritime, RED III, and emerging IMO frameworks reshaping how costs, incentives, investment decisions, and responsibilities are distributed across the value chain?
• Are diverging regional and global regulatory pathways creating new commercial and financing risks or new arbitrage and trading opportunities?
• What is required to unlock scale in alternative marine fuels, from production, infrastructure and financing through to offtake certainty and demand visibility?

• How are regional bunkering hubs (ARA, Singapore, Fujairah) competing to become biofuel supply centres?
• Are marine biofuel trade flows becoming structurally Europe-bound under FuelEU Maritime, or diversifying globally?
• How are shipping routes and voyage economics influencing where biofuels are sourced and bunkered?
• Is biobunker demand being driven primarily by regulation (EU ETS / FuelEU Maritime) or genuine long-term fuel switching in shipping?

A focus on biofuels, methanol, ammonia, ethanol and LNG

• Where do marine biofuels sit versus LNG, methanol, ammonia, and ethanol in terms of real-world scalability, readiness, and cost competitiveness?
• Is shipping heading toward fuel convergence or a structurally fragmented, multi-fuel system defined by vessel type, route, and regulation?
• What role will biofuels and transitional fuels such as LNG play over the next decade as e-fuels and zero-carbon pathways scale?
• Does ethanol have a credible long-term role in maritime decarbonisation under evolving IMO and EU lifecycle emissions frameworks?

• Are shipowners treating biofuels as a core compliance solution today, or still as a short-term flexibility option?
• What are the biggest barriers shaping fuel decisions: availability, infrastructure readiness, charterer support, or regulatory uncertainty?
• How are shipowners balancing multi-fuel strategies across LNG, biofuels, methanol, ammonia, and ethanol and what drives allocation choices?
• To what extent are charterers and cargo owners enabling biofuel uptake through cost-sharing or long-term offtake commitments?

As shipping explores lower-carbon fuel pathways, biomethane is emerging as a drop-in renewable option within existing LNG infrastructure. Supported by evolving frameworks such as FuelEU Maritime, EU ETS, and RED III, it is increasingly positioned as a near-term compliance fuel.

• How scalable is biomethane (bio-LNG) supply, and what are the key constraints across feedstocks, production capacity, and liquefaction infrastructure?
• Can bio-LNG meaningfully decarbonise the existing LNG fleet or does it simply create a limited, niche compliance market?
• How are certification systems, guarantees of origin, and lifecycle emissions accounting shaping commercial viability and market confidence in bio-LNG?
• What needs to be in place across infrastructure, vessel readiness, and charterer support to enable real-scale adoption of bio-LNG in shipping?

Collect your badge and explore the Argus Biofuels Europe Conference & Exhibition and grab your morning coffee from our barista stand, start networking ahead of the start of the conference sessions.

• How is volatility in oil, diesel and freight markets impacting the competitiveness of biofuels across transport sectors?
• To what extent are fossil fuel price movements driving short-term biofuel demand versus longer-term structural shifts under regulation?
• How are changes in refining economics and fossil fuel supply reshaping blending economics and biofuel margins?
• What does current volatility signal for future demand across road, marine and aviation fuel markets?

• How does Europe’s policy framework compare with the US, Asia and other key regions in driving investment and production capacity?
• Is Europe at risk of losing biofuel and SAF investment to markets with stronger incentives (for example US 45Z), and what are the early signals?
• Is Europe structurally becoming an import-dependent market, and what are the risks for supply security and pricing?
• How is cross-sector competition for feedstocks (road, aviation, marine) shaping Europe’s position in the global market?
• What policy changes are needed to ensure Europe remains an attractive market for long-term investment?

As RED III rolls out across Europe, national differences in implementation and compliance are creating both opportunities and challenges. This session explores how uneven timelines, differing mandates, and shifting compliance frameworks are affecting investment, supply decisions, and market dynamics.

• How is RED III being implemented across EU member states, and how is it impacting market stability and investment decisions across Europe?
• What are the main challenges arising from varying timelines, feedstock eligibility, and national compliance rules?
• How is the shift from volume-based to greenhouse gas based compliance affecting the biofuels landscape?
• What policy clarity is needed to streamline compliance systems and reduce complexity for market participants?

• How are production and consumption trends shaping trade flows and pricing?
• Where are the key regional imbalances across Europe, the US and Asia?
• How is Middle East geopolitical instability influencing energy prices, trade flows, and biofuel market dynamics?
• Which developments will influence the biofuel market over the next 6 - 12 months?
• How is demand shifting across transport sectors?

(Chatham house rules apply)

• How are policies such as the US 45Z tax credit, RED III and emerging Asian mandates impacting global trade flows and availability of exportable feedstocks to Europe?
• How are traders and producers adapting sourcing strategies in response to shifting global trade flows and policy divergence?
• Is protectionismincluding anti-dumping measures, import restrictions, and local content rules reshaping established trade corridors?
• Is Asia shifting from an export-focused market serving Europe to a demand centre in its own right? What does this mean for global supply balances?
• Are mandates still the key driver of investment, or is the market evolving beyond policy-led demand?

• What are the key market signals and supply-demand trends to watch heading into 2026-2027?
• How are the RED III transpositions impacting crop, conventional and advanced feedstock availability?
• How is growing demand from HVO and SAF reshaping feedstock competition, trade flows and pricing dynamics?

• With limited availability of Annex IX Part A feedstocks, is the market facing a structural shortage of advanced biofuels, and how significant is the risk heading into 2027 and beyond?
• Which niche and emerging feedstocks (for example, residues, MSW, algae, industrial by-products) can realistically scale, and what are the key barriers to commercialisation?
• How are national differences in feedstock eligibility and sustainability rules (for example, Germany vs Netherlands and wider EU) reshaping trade flows, pricing and compliance strategies?
• Is the shift toward waste-based feedstocks (UCO, tallow, POME) creating a structural supply constraint for HVO, SAF and biodiesel growth?
• How is the balance between crop-based and waste-based feedstocks evolving, and what does this mean for availability and compliance strategies?

As structural limits emerge in waste-based feedstocks, attention is shifting toward agricultural innovation and alternative biomass pathways. However, regulatory clarity, sustainability classification and commercial scalability remain key barriers

• What regulatory clarity is still needed under RED III to enable intermediate and cover crops (e.g. camelina, carinata) at scale?
• Can intermediate crops scale without competing with food production, and what are the agronomic and economic constraints?
• How does the classification of intermedia crops under RED III (Annex IX A vs B depending on end-use) impact their commercial viability, and does this mean they are more likely to scale in SAF rather than road fuels?
• What role could cover crops and non-edible biomass play in diversifying long-term feedstock supply?
• How far are next-generation feedstock projects from commercial scale, and what is needed to accelerate deployment?

As feedstock quality tightens and availability becomes more constrained, pretreatment technologies are becoming critical to expanding usable inputs and improving refinery flexibility.

• Why is pretreatment becoming essential as waste feedstock quality and availability tighten globally?
• How can pretreatment expand the range of usable inputs for HVO, SAF and biodiesel production?
• How do different pretreatment technologies impact yield, quality and production economics?
• What investment is required to integrate pretreatment into existing and new production infrastructure?
• Are current refineries designed to handle increasingly heterogeneous feedstocks without major upgrades?

As biofuel markets expand under RED III, sustainability certification and traceability systems are under increasing pressure. At the same time, rising fraud concerns, particularly in waste-based feedstocks, are challenging the credibility of existing frameworks and exposing weaknesses in cross-border supply chains.

• How effective are current certification systems (ISCC EU, ISCC CORSIA, RSB) in ensuring consistent sustainability enforcement across regions?
• What is the current status of UDB implementation, and what key challenges remain?
• What are the biggest vulnerabilities today - documentation fraud, misclassification, or supply chain opacity?
• How are companies strengthening chain-of-custody systems, audits, and verification processes?
• Can the industry realistically achieve fully traceable and fraud-free supply chains at scale, or will risk-based systems remain necessary?

• How is diesel demand evolving across Europe and what does this mean for long-term biofuel growth, including how RED III is being implemented at national level (e.g. Germany, Netherlands)?
• Where is HVO penetration strongest today, and what factors are driving uptake across fleets, logistics operators, and national markets?
• Is road transport demand for biofuels structurally growing, or will electrification and tightening policy frameworks begin to cap further expansion in certain segments?
• What are the key constraints slowing fleet transition in heavy-duty transport - infrastructure, cost, policy, or supply availability?

Argus presentation:

• Global ethanol supply-demand balance and pricing trends across key regions
• How blending mandates are reshaping demand centres across the Americas, Europe, and Asia
• The impact of blending policies on global trade flows and arbitrage opportunities

Panel discussion:

• Are European markets, including Germany, likely to progress toward higher ethanol blends such as E15 or E20 over the medium term?
• Can global ethanol supply (Brazil, US, Asia) keep pace with rising blending mandates alongside growing competition from SAF and marine fuel demand?
• Are we moving toward global ethanol trading hubs, or will ethanol remain a regionally anchored commodity shaped by logistics and infrastructure constraints?
• How do logistics costs (storage, handling, barging, blending infrastructure) influence the development of potential ethanol trading hubs?

Argus presentation:

• How is biomethane supply and demand evolving across key European markets?
• What is driving price formation across biomethane, natural gas and certificate markets?
• How is biomethane positioned within compliance markets and decarbonisation strategies?

Panel discussion:

• Is biomethane becoming a core transport fuel, or will demand from industry and heating limit its role in mobility?
• How is biomethane competing with other biofuels in meeting decarbonisation targets across transport sectors?
• How will certificates and guarantees of origin drive value, liquidity and market growth?
• What role does agricultural waste (manure, residues) play in future supply expansion?

As Europe moves toward RFNBO targets under the Renewable Energy Directive, hydrogen is shifting from a standalone industrial commodity to a key compliance feedstock enabling e-fuels, e-SAF, and refinery decarbonisation.

• Is hydrogen primarily becoming a compliance input for synthetic fuels rather than a standalone energy carrier?
• How will hydrogen availability shape the long-term balance between biofuels and synthetic fuels across transport sectors?
• To what extent is RFNBO policy driving real investment in hydrogen projects across Europe, and is it sufficient to close the scale gap?
• What are the main bottlenecks in scaling hydrogen production, transport, and storage infrastructure in Europe?
• Is Europe on track to meet the hydrogen availability required for 2030 e-fuel targets?