Argentina to export biodiesel from seaweed

13 July 2007 23:21  [Source: ICIS news]

By Cristina Kroll

BUENOS AIRES (ICIS news)--Argentina’s Oil Fox and Biocombustibles de Chubut have teamed up to produce and export biodiesel from seaweed, according to president Jorge Kaloustian of Oil Fox on Friday.

An undisclosed Swiss partner will bankroll the project with a $60m (€44m) investment, Kaloustian said in an interview.

"Is going to be the first biofuel of this type in the world", Kaloustian said in Spanish.

He said a British company would be the buyer for the fuel once commercial quantities – initially estimated at some 20m litres per month -- are available to export in the next nine months.

An agreement to solidify the plans is scheduled in Zurich on 20 August.

Kaloustian said that the government of Chubut province is part of the negotiations, but has not yet defined its role.

To produce the fuel, the seaweed will be cultivated in pools, which can produce much more oil for feedstock than oilseeds per hectare.

A single hectare of seaweed tanks can produce 100,000 litres of oil compared with only 400 litres of oil from soy, Kaloustian said.

“We are open to receiving more investors,” Kaloustian said.

Biocombustibles de Chubut has produced oil from seaweed for use mainly by the cosmetics industry for some time, but Oil Fox discovered that the oil could also be used to produce biofuels.

To carry out this project, Oil Fox will build an industrial plant in the city of San Nicolas, in Buenos Aires, situated near the port. The cultivation of the seaweed will continue in the southern province of Chubut.

The venture is the result of three years of research at the Universidad Nacional de la Patagonia San Juan Bosco, to scope out the area for its production potential, analyse the quality of the oil and the logistics required.

This is a new step of Argentine in biofuel business, which has recently announced its intention to participate in the development of biofuels.

Argentina’s Congress approved last year a law to promote the development of biofuels, with production in the country planned to reach up to some 800,000 tonnes per year by 2010.

($1.00 = €0.73)

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