Bionor to invest $200 million in jatropha cultivation; picks the Philippines as site

Bionor Transformacion plans to invest $200 million in a 247,000-acre jatropha plantation in the Philippines. AME Bioenergy will conduct feasibility studies, pick sites, install infrastructure, and organize labor on behalf of Bionor.

The announcement came at the beginning of a state visit by Philippine President Arroyo to Spain.

Bionor operates biodiesel plants in Spain and Italy with a combined output of 39 Mgy, and ins constructing five more plants in Brazil and Spain with a planned capacity of 254 Mgy.

Last week, PNOC Alternative Fuels Corporation chairman Renato S. Velasco said that he expected that at least 700,000 hectares of jatropha would be planted in the country, noting that it had been identified as an ideal cultivation locale by the FAO. He said the bulk of cultivation would be in Mindanao. The Chairman stressed that jatropha would be grown only in currently unused land and that no food production land would be switched to fuel.

The Philippines have a B1 and E5 mandate scheduled to go into effect in 2009, rising to B2 and E10 in 2011. Philippine demand for biofuels is expected to rise to 187 million galls of ethanol and 54 gallons of biodiesel by 2011.

Eight Philippine companies have pledged more than $350 million towards biofuels production investment. The companies include: Bio-Energy NL, Inc.; E-Cane/Pampanga Industrial Park Corp.; Philippine Agricultural Land Development and Mill, Inc (PALM, Inc.); and Zambo Norte Bioenergy; Philippine National Oil Company-Alternative Fuels Corp., Guidance Management Corp., Fuel, Inc. and Eastern Petroleum.

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