Big Biodiesel Plant Planned for Spanish Ceuta
Date: 26-Jul-07
Country: SPAIN
Author: Pablo Mates
The Biocarburantes del Estrecho plant will have capacity to produce 200,000 tonnes of plant-based diesel fuel a year, putting it among the biggest of the plants that are springing up all over Spain to meet demand for biofuels for transport.
The company has sales agreements in place with customers outside Ceuta, said Juan Carlos Smith, a director of the company running the new plant.
Construction will cost 44 million euros (US$61 million), excluding the cost of completing the reclaimed land on which it will stand alongside the port of Ceuta.
Once the land is ready, the plant can start production in 14 to 16 months, Smith said.
The parent company already has a 120,000-tonne-per-year biodiesel plant in Arahal, near the southern Spanish city of Seville and another three is various stages of planning.
Between those, it aims to reach production of between 1 million and 1.2 million tonnes a year, Smith said.
He said the company had agreements with Spanish farm unions with a view to buying Spanish-grown sunflower or rapeseed oil. Spanish production of both is minimal.
"We also have supply agreements with South American and Asian producers and we will use a mix of oils," he said.
The European Union has set a target of 5.75 percent biofuel usage in transport by 2010, which Spain recently made mandatory.
Governments are pushing biofuels both to decrease reliance on fossil oil imports and to curb carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions in the hope of slowing global warming.
Critics say demand for crops for biofuels is inflating food prices worldwide and question the amount of CO2 saved when biofuel production involves moving raw materials over long distances.
Asked about allegations that tropical forests were being burned in places like Brazil and Indonesia to provide land for expanding soy and palm oil plantations, Smith said:
"We are dealing with listed, top quality companies which have been selling raw materials for centuries."
