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 PARIS - French biofuel makers are turning to kitchen waste in the shape of used fats and oils as they seek ways to meet the country's ambitious target for renewable energy sources to supply 10 percent of all fuels by 2015.
"We need to study all existing possibilities if we want to reach the 10 percent target," said a spokesman for oilseed growers' group FOP, which, with its financial arm Sofiproteol, owns over half of Diester Industrie, France's main biodiesel producer. France plans to raise biofuels' share of the market to 5.75 percent by end-2008, seven percent by end-2010 and 10 percent by 2015, becoming Europe's top producer in the next five years. Industry players have welcomed the targets, but say the long-term goals may be a struggle. To reach the seven percent target, the grain and oilseed area devoted to biofuel output will have to increase tenfold to three million hectares. Biodiesel makers, which mainly use rapeseed, say one way to meet the targets would be to use small amounts of used cooking oil and animal fat but warn that France lags other countries in developing the necessary technology. "Their development has already started in Germany, Austria, Italy or Spain," said Etienne Poitrat, an engineer at the French Agency for Environment and Energy Management (ADEME). "They are cheap raw materials we mustn’t disregard, but it is important to refine them properly," the FOP spokesman added. Diester Industrie joined forces earlier this month with US-based multinational Bunge to create Diester Industrie International, grouping the companies' biofuel assets elsewhere in Europe. Bunge's Italian subsidiary Novaol has experience in new oil processing techniques and has been turning 50 percent of cooking oil used in McDonald's restaurants in France into biodiesel since 2003. The other 50 percent is bought by Vital, a German biodiesel manufacturer specialising in blending.
More biofuel projects involving such alternatives are starting to emerge in France. "It's a great time to get into that kind of business," said Jean Quentin, who has set up Gazoleo, a firm aiming to produce up to 100 million litres of a five percent ether derived from animal fat and 95 percent diesel mix, which could keep 100,000 cars on the road for a year. "Animal fats as well as animal by-products are wasted right now because they have been banned from animal feed since 1996 due to the mad cow crisis," he said. "The second project is by French oil giant Total and has good chances of succeeding," Poitrat said, referring to the firm's plans to build a 200,000-tonne biodiesel production unit using a mix of vegetable oils and animal fats. "The unit should be built in France and should participate in the government's aim to reach the 5.75 percent biofuel share in fuels by the end of 2008," he added. Sursa: http://www.planetark.com |
