The agribusiness suffers from a lack of diesel but also has the solution, through soy-based biodiesel, whose processing plants have idle capacities.
Finally, the idea that we have been wielding for some time on these columns has been taken: that the crisis of the shortage of diesel is resolved with … biodiesel. On Monday the deputy Carlos Gutiérrez (Bloque Federal, Córdoba), presented a bill that exceedswhile The national government would announce, this Wednesday, at 11, from Santa Fe, an increase in the cut of diesel with biofuels up to 12.5%.
Gutiérrez’s proposal stipulates, in Article 1, that all liquid fuels classified as diesel must contain at least 10% biodiesel. It should be remembered that the original reason for the current shortage is a consequence of the drop in the cut rate, which it dropped from 10% to less than 5% last year. This has created a hole in the enclosure that threatens to expand as winter progresses. For this reason the bill adds that between the months of April and September, the minimum biodiesel content would rise to 20%.
Furthermore, the executive authority can increase this minimum percentage “when it deems it appropriate in an attempt to balance the supply of demand, the trade balance, the promotion of investments in regional economies and / or for environmental or technical reasons, and can only reduce it exceptionally, in the case of reliable verification of scarcity situations, as long as this situation persists.
Music for my ears.
In the rest of the articles, the project establishes several regulations that may require adjustments, but the essential thing is that it reverses the cards on the table. Biofuels in general, and biodiesel in particular, were making a comeback. The initial impulse, with that well-remembered bill by Rio Negro deputy Luis Falcó, in 2006, which established the mandatory cutting of diesel with biodiesel and petrol with ethanol, was unleashed huge investments inside. Not only has the fuels game opened up to new players, it has also materialized Argentina’s largest contribution to the reduction of greenhouse gases (GHG).
For the productive sector it meant creating new demand for cereals. It is a fundamental fact for a country that occupies a privileged position in the main products of the Pampas. Argentina is a market factor in many of its core products (base and derivatives). For example, for more than twenty years it has led the world market for soybean oil (and is on the podium of the sunflower). Consequently, any ton withdrawn from supply implies a strengthening of the price. Conversion of oil into biodiesel for the domestic market (also international) favors the prices of the country’s third export itembehind soybean and cornmeal.
And speaking of Corn: now we have lost the participation, in the hands of Brazil, which has already taken away the second place in the world offer. But we produce 50 million tons and we only use 15, with which we have unloaded more than 30 million tons worldwide without much added value. The fastest way to increase domestic corn consumption is the incorporation of ethanol in gasoline.
What’s more: Argentina imports diesel and gasoline. The refineries are full and there are no new investments on the horizon. Neither here nor in the world, which has already decreed the death certificate of fossil fuels. Developed countries are putting term for internal combustion engines (Which is definitely a mistake, because biofuels can be a fantastic option in the transition to electric mobility or hydrogen.) Under these conditions, no one finances an investment in new distilleries.
In fact, in the In the United States there is a boom with the transformation of the old oil refineries into “HBO”. It is a different biodiesel from the one we use here, obtained through the transesterification of vegetable oils. It consists of oil cracking, a process developed twenty years ago by the Norwegian company Neste Oil, and which they themselves presented at an Aapresid congress. The process takes on a large scalewhich is why it is compatible with the “refitting” of these distilleries.
And here it is important to be vigilant. Opposites also play. This development of HBO in the US is good news in the short term due to the increase in oil consumption. But the expansion of demand leads to strong investments in the crushing of soybeans, with which they are generating increasing quantities of flour. And the flour, as mentioned before, is the first product of the Argentine exportable basket, generating over 15 billion a year.
It should be remembered that the US government, pushed by the soy lobby, has knocked out Argentine biodiesel. They eliminated the competition by imposing impossible tariffs. The European Union had done the same thing, accusing dumping and subsidies, but Argentina fought a diplomatic battle and won. Today Argentine biodiesel re-enters the European continent.
The good side is that biodiesel expands around the world. And, fortunately, here he is again winning “momentum”. Several carrier organizations have requested it alternative to solve the severe shortage of diesel.
There is the Gutiérrez bill, to which the Executive will certainly try to respond with some last-minute resolution, raising the cut up to a certain point, which is not bad. The increase in the percentage of mixture is the best formula to deal with the lack of diesel. But the government will take advantage of the joke to raise the price, obviously blaming biodiesel. Don’t be fooled: it is lowering the subsidy on diesel, the import of which costs the country twice as much as local biodiesel.
Scarcity is here to stay, and what required is a dazzling vision. We are not just talking about shortcomings, but about investments, employment, indoor activities and the environment.
Hector Huergo
Source: Clarin
