Interest in developing biofuels has fluctuated and has been strongly driven by global energy trends.

In 2024, following the Covid-19 pandemic, the international call for a green transition, and the increased focus on developing cleaner fuels to decarbonise hard-to-abate industries, interest in biofuels grew.

Biofuels were expected to play a major role in the global green transition by helping to decarbonise industries that could not simply shift to renewable electricity, such as aviation.

However, this interest waned in 2025, as several companies backtracked on their green energy targets.

Ethanol and biodiesel are the two most widely used biofuels, although other feedstocks can be used to produce alternative biofuels.

In 2024, the International Energy Agency (IEA) said it expected the use of biofuels to increase significantly by 2030, with a much larger proportion of these fuels produced from waste, residues, and non-food crops, thereby making them more sustainable.

The demand for biofuel rose to 4.3 exajoules (EJ) in 2022, thereby surpassing pre-pandemic levels. The IEA suggested that to meet net-zero emissions targets by 2050, global biofuel production would need to increase to 10 EJ by 2030.

By the end of 2024, there were 43 projects expected to be operational by 2030, according to Rystad Energy, with oil and gas firms such as ExxonMobil, Chevron, BP, Shell.

However, by 2025, interest in biofuels had begun to wane.

In late 2025, the OECD said it expected global biofuel use to increase by 0.9 per cent per year over the coming decade, which was much lower than the 3.3 per cent annual growth seen in previous years.

In 2026, interest in biofuels is reviving, driven by the significant price volatility of fossil fuels.

-Oilprice.com