Wartsila wins €7m deal to build jatropha plant

23 April 2008 15:07  [Source: ICIS news]

TORONTO (ICIS news)--Wartsila has won a €7m ($11m) contract to build a 9 megawatt (MW) combined heat and power (CHP) plant in Belgium that will run on jatropha, the first such facility in the world, the Finnish power plant builder said on Wednesday.

 

The project was a step towards using carbon dioxide (CO2)-neutral fuels that did not compete with food crops, the company said.

 

“The significance of this order is that it will be the first in the world whereby our engines are to run on vegetable oil from the jatropha plant and to produce both electricity and heat,” said Wartsila business development manager Ronald Westerdijk.

 

Jatropha oil was a liquid biofuel with great potential as it could be harvested outside the world’s rainforest areas, even near deserts, he added.

 

Wartsila will build the plant for Greenpower NV, a joint venture of Thenergo, a Belgian developer of sustainable energy projects, four local agricultural companies and a private investor.

 

Commercial operations are expected to begin in February 2009.

 

($1 = €0.63)

 

Bookmark Simon Robinson’s Big Biofuels Blog for some independent thinking on biofuels

By: Stefan Baumgarten
+1 713 525 2653

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