Indonesia launches B50 biodiesel mandate July 1, pulling palm oil higher
Indonesia switches on its B50 biodiesel program July 1, raising the palm oil blend in diesel to 50 percent. The mandate is the biggest biofuels story of the day. It deepens the country's pull on its own palm crop, tightens what is left for export, and ChemAnalyst expects it to reshape global palm oil and energy markets. Palm futures already climbed for a second session on strong exports and the looming mandate.
The catch sits with the people who grow the stuff. The Jakarta Globe reports B50 worries Indonesian farmers, who see more of the crop routed into fuel tanks and wonder what that does to prices and the supply left for other buyers. Jakarta is selling the program as energy security and a way to push more value through the palm oil chain. Watch whether export volumes drop enough to move prices in importing countries.
SAF
KBR landed a real win. Keppel and Aster picked its PureSAF technology for licensing and front-end engineering on what would be Asia's first commercial-scale ethanol-to-jet plant, on Singapore's Jurong Island. The facility targets up to 100,000 tons of sustainable aviation fuel a year, pending a final investment decision and approvals. KBR traded up about 3.5 percent on heavy volume. The tech came out of Sweden's Swedish Biofuels AB and KBR holds the worldwide license.
Not every SAF bet is paying off. Sasol and Topsoe are winding down Zaffra, their sustainable aviation fuel joint venture. Two SAF headlines, two directions.
India
India is running ethanol and electric vehicles side by side rather than picking one. The government is pushing higher ethanol blends, rolling out E85, and backing flex-fuel vehicles, which keeps existing engines in play while cutting emissions. That splits from China and Europe, where the strategy leans hard on dropping the combustion engine.
The ethanol push is changing farm economics on the ground. In Uttar Pradesh, ethanol plants are buying wet maize at 30 to 40 percent moisture in volume, giving farmers a buyer they did not have before. The All India Kisan Sabha is less sold, flagging the diversion of rice into ethanol at its Mumbai meeting.
US
Higher biomass diesel targets under the Renewable Fuel Standard are expected to boost US soybean demand, per BioEnergy Times. Bigger mandated volumes mean more feedstock crush, and soybean oil is the main one.
Evos Rotterdam broke ground June 25 on a methanol and ethanol expansion at the Port of Rotterdam, adding five tanks at 67,500 cubic meters combined, a pump station, and a jetty, due online early 2028.
What to watch
Whether B50 tightens palm exports enough to lift import prices, the KBR plant's final investment decision, and where the next RFS volumes land.