Wednesday Edition

02.25.09

NORTH AMERICA

US EPA officials overseeing the expansion of the RFS have said that they are open to changing methods for measuring biofuels' GHG emissions and plan to seek outside review. However, EPA has not yet agreed to withhold language on indirect land-use, as some have requested to just publish its proposed methodology for review.

The Tennessee Department of Transportation has given $1.5 million to develop a Biofuel Green Island Corridor along its major highways that will include biofuel pumps at retail outlets at least every hundred miles.

JatrophaBioJet Corp. of California has announced it will develop the jatropha biofuels market, specifically using jatropha oil as a replacement to jet fuel. The company is a collaboration between Abundant Biofuels Corp., South Pole Carbon Asset Management, and Mitch Hawkins & Co.

Mascoma Corp. has announced that its 200,000 gallon per year cellulosic ethanol pilot plant in Rome, NY, is now producing. The plant is one of the largest cellulosic ethanol facilities in the US and can process feedstocks including wood chips, grasses, corn stover, and sugar cane bagasse.

SOUTH AMERICA

Argentina’s government and farmers will hold talks March 3rd to try to end a dispute over soybean export taxes after Wednesday agreeing to eliminate dairy taxes. Argentina’s farm groups want the government to lower a 35% tax on soybeans and remove restrictions on exports on all farm goods before they end protests, Bloomberg reports.

EUROPE

Finnish refiner Neste Oil will begin construction on its $704 million, 800,000 mt per year biodiesel plant in Singapore in March. The plant will be the company’s largest and will begin production in 2010.

Italy-based Oxem plans to produce 200,000 mt of biodiesel in 2010 at its Mezzana Bigli plant that began production in February. Oxem plans to sell most of its output in Italy.

Viridas in the UK has signed a deal with Cazenave, a South American agribusiness group to develop jatropha oil to meet the EU sustainability and GHG requirements. The contract will cover development of the planned plantation in Bahia, Brazil and consultancy support.

In Spain, Green Fuel will construct a $128 million, 90,000mt storage and logistics plant in southern Cadiz province. The company is also developing four biodiesel plants in Spain and will open the first at the end of next month.

ASIA / PACIFIC


Germany on Wednesday launched a "climate initiative" with Thailand, providing $11.5 million over three years to assist the country in combating global warming. The budget is for six projects involving palm-oil plantations for biodiesel, energy efficiency, climate protection in the tourism industry, and construction of a solar-thermal-bioenergy power plant.

Indonesia will maintain its 0% CPO export tax in March, while cutting the base export price to $480/mt, from $482/mt in February. Indonesia will not tax palm oil exports until the minimum reference price hits $700/mt.

Small-scale Indonesian palm oil farmers will be provided training through the Roundtable of Sustainable Palm Oil on how to sustainably run their plantations. RSPO certification training will begin in March.

Malaysia's biodiesel exports rose to 12,731 mt ($8.2 million) in January from 3,800 mt ($3.3 million) a year earlier. Most shipments were to Rotterdam and to the US however, January exports were lower compared with 20,186 mt in December.

AFRICA

Brazil, along with China and the EU, has identified sub-Saharan Africa as having ideal agro-climatic conditions, and the socioeconomic potential needed to become a large-scale biofuel feedstock provider, Forbes reports. Petrobras of Brazil has already proposed a series of long-term investments across the continent.

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