Spain's Sos plans 200kt/yr Aranjuez biodiesel plant

16 October 2006 16:23  [Source: ICIS news]

LONDON (ICIS news)--Spanish food group Sos Cuetara will invest €30-35m ($37.6m-28m) in a 200,000 tonnes/year biodiesel plant in Aranjuez, Spain for start-up in late 2007, emulating archrival Ebro Puleva's incursion into the booming biofuels market, a company spokesman told ICIS news on Monday.

He said the site would use sunflower, soy, palm and jatropha seeds as feedstock and was expected to deliver sales of €120m in 2008 and enable Sos to diversify its business in a "booming" field.

Meanwhile, domestic rival Bionor has formed a joint venture with Brazilian peer Enercom to build a 200,000 tonnes/year biodiesel factory in Sao Paulo, Brazil, a company spokeswoman said.

The factory would use soy oil as feedstock and be ready sometime in 2008, she added.

Bionor will own 80% of the venture in which it will invest €40m.

Bionor also has a project to install three new biodiesel plants in Spain which will help it meet a target to supply 550,000 tonnes/year of biodiesel in the European market by late 2008, up from an earlier target of 445,000 tonnes/year.

The company is currently building the first 300,000 tonnes/year biodiesel factory at Palos de la Frontera near the southern industrial city of Huelva. It has identified the towns of Puerto de Zierbena (Bilbao) and Berantevilla (Alava, Basque Country) to set up the other two, it said in a statement.

Bionor operates biodiesel factories in Alava, Spain and in Brescia, Italy. The company is owned by auto-parts maker Cie Automotive.

Click here for an updated table of the latests biodiesel projects in Europe.

By: Ivan Castano Freeman
+44 20 8652 3214

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