Natura Opens First of Three Spanish Biofuel Plants
Date: 27-Mar-07
Country: SPAIN
Author: Julia Hayley
The first plant, run by Biocarburantes Castilla La Mancha, is the largest so far in Spain and will start full scale production using imported soy oil in April, Natura's Chairman Juan Carlos Jimenez told a news conference.
Plant-based biodiesel can be used instead of regular diesel to reduce emissions of carbon dioxide, the main gas responsible for global warming, and European Union governments are encouraging its use as part of efforts to curb climate change.
By the end of 2008 Natura plans to have completed a 200,000 tonne a year plant in the port of Alicante and a 500,000 tonne one in the northern Spanish port of Gijon, which is says will be the biggest in the world.
"For now we are using imported oil, mainly soy, but we can use any vegetable oil, anything Spain can produce," Jimenez said.
The company says it will offer farmers long term contracts and is encouraging them to switch to sunflower, soy or rapeseed.
WATER SAVING
Another advantage is that these are less thirsty crops than the traditional alfalfa, maize or beet.
Substituting oilseeds for these crops over 1.2 million hectares (3 million acres) -- the area Natura estimates would be needed to supply its three plants -- could save 4,000 cubic metres of water a year, it says.
"There's a tremendous deficit of biodiesel in Spain," Jimenez said. The Ocana plant has already sold its output for the first two years, mainly to the major fuel companies, who will blend it with mineral diesel.
As the Natura brand becomes better known it will probably sell more of its diesel for use in pure form. Most vehicles can use biodiesel without any engine modification.
The production plants can switch to using oil made from non-food crops once the technology exists to produce it at a reasonable cost, said Jimenez's brother Juan Francisco, chairman of the Jimenez Belinchon group. The family-owned company and financial group Ahorro Corporacion are Natura's biggest shareholders.
"Our R&D unit is is testing oils like jatropha, cotton or coconut and will look at the possibility of using toxic oils, if we can manage to remove the toxins," Juan Carlos Jimenez said.
Some 70 percent of Spanish vehicles are diesel, and the country so far produces only a fraction of the biodiesel it would need to reach the EU goal of 5.75 percent usage in transport by 2010.
