China to develop forest land for biodiesel

09 February 2007 11:08  [Source: ICIS news]

SINGAPORE (ICIS news)--China’s State Forestry Administration is planning to develop 200m hectares of forest land by the end of 2010 to grow four biodiesel feedstocks, a senior official said on Friday.

 

The newly planted trees will provide feedstock to produce 6m tonnes of biodiesel and 15m KW (kilowatts) of electricity in its 11th five year plan (2006-2010), its bureau chief Jia Zhibang said.

 

The agency will focus on Yunnan, Sichuan, Guizhou and Chongqing provinces to grow 6m hectares of jatropha.

 

In Hebei, Shaanxi, Anhui and Henan provinces, 3.75m hectares of land will be used for Chinese pistachio trees, Jia said.

 

Another biodiesel feedstock, cornus wilsoniana, will be planted on a 750,000 hectare area in Hunan, Hubei and Jiangxi provinces.

 

An area of 2m hectares will be used to develop a fourth feedstock, xanthoceras sorbifolia, in Inner Mongolia, Liaoning and Xinjiang provinces.

 

Chinese energy major PetroChina will invest yuan (CNY) 5m ($645,000) in a joint project with the Yunnan forestry agency to develop the four biodiesel feedstocks, Jia said.

 

In a January agreement with the agency, PetroChina said it will also develop land, first in Yunnan and Sichuan provinces, to grow the feedstocks and produce 200,000 tonnes/year of biodiesel by 2010.

 

The firm will expand its ethanol capacity to over 2m tonnes/year, or more than 40% of the country’s output, using non-grain feedstock.

 

($1 = CNY7.75)

By: Florence Tan
+65 6780 4359

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