Palm growers to get boost from biofuel scheme
Government signs pact to study feasibility of biodiesel plant
The Nation, September 1, 2004
Palm Growers are set to benefit from the government's latest biofuel promotion scheme, which will need to buy palm oil for the production of biodiesel.
At the Biofuel Bangkok 2004 conference yesterday, Thailand signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Bayer Technology and ADG Group of Co ( Thailand ) to study the feasibility of constructing of a plant to produce biodiessel and palm oil by products.
"We expect the study to take six months to complete and then the plant construction should require 22 months," said Jompoj Pijitpakdeekul, president of ACG Group. The project coordinator is in discussions with Krung Thai Bank, BankThai and the Government Savings Bank for a project loan.
This Bt2-billion project will make use of advanced technology and equipment from Bayer to process palm oil from farmers in eight southern provinces, starting with Krabi. The daily output is estimated at 100,000300,000 litres of ester, consisting of 2per-cent palm oil and 98-per-cent diesel.
The viability of the project depends on the minimum production cost," Jompoj said.
The project will - have its own plantation area, stretching over 10,000 rai, which is expected to reduce costs by 40 per cent. Byproducts such as glycerin can also be supplied to shampoo, soap and supplementary food factories.
Next year the government plans to force popular tourist provinces and highly polluted provinces like Bangkok to convert to biodiesel.
"This will guarantee demand," said ACG adviser Samai Jai-In.
The two-day Biofuel Bangkok conference witnessed progress in promoting biofuel consumption. A total of four MoUs were signed, one involving PTT and Coimex, an ethanol producer from Brazil , in boosting ethanol demand.
"We look forward to forging a long-term plan to promote ethanol consumption," said Abhisit Rujikiartkamchorn, PTT senior executive vice president. Ethanol imports might not be possible in the short term due to the high duties of Bt6-Bt7 per litre.
"If we import, we'll need to shoulder losses," the executive vice president said.
PTT agreed with Petrobas of Brazil to cooperate in biofuel transportation and with Petron of the Philippines to cooperate in biofuel technology development.
Thailand and the Philippines will work together to set regional standards for biofuel from easily available crops and to lower crude oil import bills. Both countries host assembly lines of international carmakers, and they pledged to push auto producers to install engines modified for ethanol blended fuel.
Thailand plans to dilute automobile petrol with ethanol, as high oil prices force it to reduce dependence on energy imports costing US$10 billion (Bt414 billion) a year.
The government is replacing the imported octane booster additive MTBE with a mix of 10-percent ethanol in petrol, called gasohol.
Back to Newsclippings | To top
|
