Article 'Registration of initial stocks in the Union database'

What is the Union Database (UDB)?

The Union database is a register of evidence in the biofuel sector, which is set up and operated by the EU Commission. It is intended to enable better traceability of gaseous and liquid (bio)fuels. This is intended to avoid double counting and double marketing of sustainability properties. The greenhouse gas savings of a bioenergy quantity are counted towards the German biofuel quota and the EU ETS. The establishment and operation of the Union database reduces the risk of fraud. By recording the biomass, the Union database prevents large quantities of palm oil from being falsely declared as biodiesel in other EU countries. The link to biomass should be available for these quantities in the UDB.

Establishment of the Union database in accordance with RED II

The "Renewable Energy Directive" (RED II) regulates the establishment and operation of the Union database in Article 28 (2) and (4). The Commission shall establish a Union database that enables the tracking of liquid and gaseous transport fuels and allows them to be counted towards the numerator in accordance with Article 27(1)(b).

Or be taken into account for the purposes of the first subparagraph of Article 29(1). Member States shall require the relevant economic operators to provide information in that database on the transactions carried out and the sustainability characteristics of those fuels. This shall include their life-cycle greenhouse gas emissions, from the place of their production to the fuel supplier placing them on the market. Member States may set up a national database linked to the Union database. They must ensure that data entered is immediately transferred between the databases.".

Who needs to store data in the UDB and use it?

In accordance with RED II, the UDB should Transportation sector all gaseous and liquid fuels are covered. These include biofuels, bioliquids and sustainable gases. These include biomethane and hydrogen. In addition, renewable fuels of non-biological origin (RFNBOs) and recycled carbon fuels are included there. From RED III onwards, the scope is to be extended to the biomass sector. This will then be used for heat/cooling production and electricity production and will then also include the Union database.

Scope of the UDB

As the scope of the UDB is not limited to the last interface, as is the case with Nabisy, for example, the circle of users is correspondingly larger. Currently, all economic operators along the biofuel value chain must register and store data from the biomass collection point onwards. This means that every trader of biomass who collects biomass such as silage maize, manure or municipal waste would have to register in the Union database. The places of origin of biomass, such as farms or restaurants in the case of kitchen waste, are currently exempt. However, they still have to submit their self-declarations in the system of their choice, such as REDcert-EU, ISCC-EU, SURE, BetterBiomass or others to the collector of the biomass.

Biomass in the UDB

These biomasses are then stored by the biomass collector in the UDB as "Transaction of the buyer at the place of origin" with the associated sustainability properties. The first gathering point/collector of the biomass can then pass it on to another economic operator, e.g. a biogas plant. Collectors must register the transfer/transaction in the UDB within 72 hours report. Conversions of biomass must also be recorded. In the case of biomethane, this could be biogas production, for example, where biogas is produced from a volume of biomass such as dry chicken manure.

Different designations of biomasses in the registers

The trick is that there are different biomass designations in the various registers and systems. For example, the UDB currently in the case of manure "Manure", "Manure with organic waste" and "Manure with organic waste and energy crops". The Material list of ISCC, on the other hand, only knows "Manure". Registers like Nabisy on the other hand, take into account not only the source material but also the production process in their biomass codes. These codes take into account whether waste gas combustion has taken place and whether a closed fermentation residue storage facility is available. For example, there are 4 different codes for biomethane from liquid manure, which also take into account: "Biomethane from liquid manure (all animal species); closed fermentation residue storage; waste gas incineration".

What are the first steps with the UDB?

The first step with the UDB for all economic operators is the recording of Initial stocks. According to the UDB documentation, this is required for all economic operators from 01.01.2024. Users must first create all suppliers. The user can then navigate to "Entry of initial stocks":

Under "Enter initial stock", users enter the stock for a biomass or for intermediate products such as biogas and end products such as biomethane.