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Biofuels

Biofuels are renewable fuels that can be made from a broad range of plant and food wastes. They can be blended with existing fuels such as petrol and diesel.

Shell service station offering biofuel in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil (photo)
Biofuel from Raízen is available
at this Shell service station in
Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

Today, most biofuels around the world are produced from corn, sugar cane or vegetable oils.

The production of biofuels needs to be managed in a responsible way to safeguard land use, the environment and local communities. Biofuels can be a valuable part of the energy mix and, in the coming decades, could be a lower cost way to reduce carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions in the transport sector.

Shell was one of the first companies to invest in developing biofuels. We have dedicated biofuels teams and research agreements with experts in leading institutions across the world. Shell has technical partnerships with leading companies to explore new technology platforms for the production of advanced biofuels. New technologies that process biomass feedstocks could improve the cost, quality and sustainability of biofuels.

There are three main areas for Shell in biofuels: we are one of the world’s largest producers of biofuels today through the Raízen joint venture; we have a supply chain of biofuels that we buy and blend into our own fuels; and we are working on developing advanced biofuels.

In 2014, we blended around 9 billion litres of biofuels in our petrol and diesel worldwide – making us one of the largest blenders of biofuels globally. We have also been working hard to improve the sustainability standards in our supply chain for many years. The Shell standards cover safeguarding land use, improving working conditions and protecting the environment.