by Lim Shie-Lynn

KUALA LUMPUR: The domestic and Southeast Asian biodiesel production could be boosted by more effective policy enforcement and support from governments in the region as the industry is facing a difficult future with costly feedstock and lower crude oil prices, an industry consultant said.

Malaysia and Indonesia recently announced that both countries would cooperate in a biofuel development programme where both would use similar specifications and blending for biodiesel.

Plantation Industries and Commodities Minister Datuk Peter Chin had said the country hoped to sign a memorandum of understanding with Indonesia, which would encourage a palm-based biofuel policy that both countries could use.

While the decision would be positive to the biodiesel sector, Malaysia-based engineering services firm Lurgi Sdn Bhd’s managing director Uwe Zwiefelhofer said: “The problem with biodiesel industry in this region is the…

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Business Times

Wednesday, August 20, 2008

By Ooi Tee Ching

MALAYSIA expects a 50 per cent growth in biodiesel exports to some 143,000 tonnes this year, as the business has become viable again on lower cost of crude palm oil.

Yesterday, the third month benchmark palm oil futures closed at RM2,436 per tonne, 46 per cent off from its all-time high of RM4,486 per tonne in March.

The price of palm oil traded in the futures market has been falling due to an oversupply of vegetable oils worldwide. The price drop is worsened by buyers from consuming countries, in recent weeks, attempting to renegotiate import contracts and defer their deliveries.

“We should see higher exports of biodiesel as palm oil prices have come down significantly. But this is subjected to palm oil satisfying the food sector first before the excess can be channelled for biodiesel,”…

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by Prix D Banzon

Davao City (14 August) — The country has to increase the volume of production for bio-diesel and bio-ethanol if it will compel all vehicles to use it.

Dr. Johnny T. Batalon, focal person of Crops Biofuels, Coconut and Oil Palm Specialist of the Philippine Council for Agricultural Resources and Research Development (PCARRD) said current production is only at 100,000 liters.

Batalon in an interview during the opening of the Kaniyogan Festival at SM City Davao Event Center on Wednesday, August 13 he said it would need 78 million liters for the year one (from May 6, 2007 to May 6, 2008) implementation of biodiesel and 269 million liters for the bio ethanol when it will be implemented in 2009.

Batalon admitted that there is now a problem with raw materials but he stressed that their advocacy…

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KUALA LUMPUR, Aug 5 (Reuters) - Malaysia plans to use 500,000 tonnes of crude palm oil from its swelling inventories in the next two to three months to produce biodiesel to boost faltering prices of the vegetable oil, Commodities Minister Peter Chin said on Tuesday.

‘We are talking about anything in the region of 500,000 tonnes,’ Peter Chin told Reuters from Indonesia by telephone.

‘The timing should depend on the strategy that we use and the infrastructure to absorb this amount but we plan do it as soon as possible. Surely in the next two to three months.’

(Reporting by Niluksi Koswanage; Editing by Louise Heavens)

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The Star

Wednesday - July 30, 2008

by Suraj Raj

Sepang

But cost of growing crop must first be ascertained, cautions minister

The cost of growing jatropha needs to be ascertained before it can be fully commercialised by smallholders, says Plantation Industries and Commodities Minister Datuk Peter Chin Fah Kui.

“Jatropha is a possible crop for biodiesel and the potential is there. But I would not recommend smallholders grow it until we know the cost involved,” he said after viewing the jatropha research and development activities being carried out at Asiatic Centre for Genome Technology Sdn Bhd’s (ACGT) Jatropha Experimental Station yesterday.

A wholly-owned subsidiary of Asiatic Development Bhd, ACGT has been experimenting on jatropha and its various aspects, including genomics.

Chin said he did not agree with companies trying to champion jatropha by enticing small holders to grow it on a contract basis or to…

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By Catherine Makino

TOKYO, Jul 4 (IPS) - Japan wants countries to reconsider biofuels as an alternative technology to fight climate change by using fuel cell cars at the Group of Eight (G8) Summit on Jul. 4-7. The vehicles will transport the leaders of the world’s major industrialised nations when they gather on the northern Japanese Island of Hokkaido.

Honda will display its most advanced environmental technologies with its FX Clarity and Civic Hybrid. They run on a blend of fuel made from straw.

The world is increasingly turning to biofuels as a way to ease pressure from rising oil prices. But critics say biofuels may create more greenhouse gas than they save. Clearing natural forests to plant fuel plantations releases more carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions, and using food crops for fuel production is at odds with…

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The Associated Press

BRUSSELS, Belgium: Anti-poverty group Oxfam International on Tuesday urged the world’s poorest nations to think twice before jumping on a biofuel boom that could drive farmers off their land and hit food supplies.

In a report, campaigners recommended that developing countries “move with extreme caution” before embarking on any broad push to increase output of energy crops such as palm oil.

It said biofuel exports to Europe and the United States may be lucrative but the potential economic, social and environmental costs are “severe.”

Oxfam said governments need to set safeguards to make sure small farmers are not thrown off their land and that food crops continue to be grown.

The report said Indonesia has seen sharp price rises for palm oil which local people use as a staple cooking oil as the government sets aside…

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Government review expected to call for rethink over biofuel targets, as producers argue lack of certainty over government policy is impacting investor confidence

James Murray, BusinessGreen, 19 Jun 2008

An official government report is set to conclude that booming demand for biofuels has had a “significant” impact on global food supplies, forcing ministers into a major rethink of controversial biofuel targets.

According to reports in today’s Guardian newspaper, The Gallagher Review will warn that while some biofuels can have environmental benefits, there is need for wider research into the indirect effects of demand for energy crops on deforestation and food prices.

The Review, which was commissioned by the Department for Transport and chaired by the head of the Renewable Fuel Agency Professor Ed Gallagher, will also call for a clear distinction to be made between “first generation” biofuels derived from food crops such as corn,…

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Jun 13 2008 Evening Gazette

PLANS announced today to build a massive, multi-feed biodiesel plant in Rotterdam could add to biofuels’ producers woes on Teesside.

Neste Oil said its 800,000 t/a facility to produce NExBTL renewable diesel would be ready by 2011.

At £670m, it represents an investment almost three times the largest seen on Teesside, where producers say investors are deterred by impossible trading conditions and the bad press surrounding biofuels.

Neste has already decided to go ahead with a similar-sized plant in Singapore. Together, Neste said the plants will help it achieve its goal of becoming the world’s leading producer of renewable diesel fuel, whose manufacture is based on proprietary technology using a mix of palm oil, rapeseed oil, and animal fat.

It claims NExBTL diesel can be used in all diesel engines.

The company said it was…

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Neste Oil is to build an 800,000 t/a plant to produce NExBTL renewable diesel in Rotterdam in the Netherlands. Construction will start immediately and the facility is scheduled to be completed in2011. Total cost of the investment is projected to be EUR 670 million. Neste Oil announced its decision to go ahead with a similar-sizedplant in Singapore in November 2007. Both plants are linked to Neste Oil’s goal of becoming the world’s leading producer of renewable diesel fuel.

NExBTL renewable diesel is based on Neste Oil’s proprietary technology, which can use a wide range of raw materials. In its plantin Finland, the company currently uses a mix of palm oil, rapeseedoil, and animal fat

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