Production costs

The costs of producing agricultural feedstocks in Switzerland are considerably higher than in the European Union. This, together with the decision not to reduce the arable land area devoted to subsistence agriculture, led Alcosuisse to develop a project based on the use of Swiss agricultural wastes, surpluses and downgraded products. Today, Swiss agriculture is facing a rapidly changing framework (e.g. bilateral agreements with the EU) which should result in a sharp drop in prices. A significant part of traditional agricultural production will not survive in its present form and farmers will have to find new sources of income. Second generation biofuels could enable them to exploit land which is no longer profitable for farming conventional produce. Another opportunity offered by these new technologies would be the utilisation of lignocellulosic wastes. However, it remains to be shown that these second generation biofuel channels offer farmers better conditions than agricultural products.

Interest in the privately-financed rectification and dehydration plant lies in its lower conditioning, transport, and testing costs, and its ability to rapidly adapt to Swiss and European market demand thanks to great flexibility and cutting-edge technologies