Biodiesel in the news

Oil companies request fiscal aid for biofuel
Be part of the Bio fuel bonanza
Team RAC aiming to make history with first bio-fuel podium
To boldly go … Virgin’s search for green fuel
D1 Oils to buy major site for biodiesel production, distribution on Merseyside

News in detail

Oil companies request fiscal aid for biofuel (21/09/06)Mihai Istrate
Petrom, Rompetrol and Lukoil have expressed interest in investing in the development of biofuel refineries if the Ministry of Economy and Trade (MEC) agrees to grant fiscal aid for this type of activity. Representatives from the three companies met with Minister of Economy Codrut Seres Tuesday, presenting to him a series of propositions for the promotion of bioethanol and biodiesel on the Romanian market, according to an MEC press release. One of the propositions calls for the gradual increase of the proportion of biofuel that is mixed with regular fuel, according to a pre-established agenda. A second proposition calls for the granting of fiscal aid. A working group made of MEC experts and specialists from the three companies will elaborate in the following period a set of concrete proposals for the implementation of the European directives for the promotion of biofuels

The promotion of renewable fuels as part of the effort to reduce polluting emissions is one of Romania's pledges to the European Union. The European directive, which Romania adopted in 2005, stipulates that two percent of all fuel consumed in 2007 must be from renewable sources. The share must reach 5.75 percent by 2010.

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Be part of the Bio fuel bonanza(20/09/06)

CHEAPER motoring is high on the agenda for most motorists. Combine that with cleaner fuel and enhanced performance and you've got the dream car and that dream can turn to reality thanks to a local firm.
Green Fuels, based near Malmesbury in Wiltshire, is offering a large, matchbox-sized gizmo which changes an ordinary petrol-driven car into a clean one by converting it to run on bio-ethanol E85.
One end of the Fullflex Gold Bi-Fuel manager plugs into the vehicle's engine management unit, while the other is attached to the injectors.

Once fitted, which is an hour-long job for a garage, the vehicle can run on 100 per cent bio-ethanol E85, unleaded petrol or a mix of both.

The results are reduced emissions, cheaper fuel and a power boost.
Fullflex Gold Bi-fuel Manager has been used for the last 20 years in Brazil where sugar beet - used in the making of bio-ethanol - is plentiful.

Bio-ethanol is seen as the way forward towards more environmentally friendly motoring.
Both Ford and Saab have recently launched FlexiFuel cars, while more than 9,000 such vehicles have been sold in Scandinavia in the last few months.

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Team RAC aiming to make history with first bio-fuel podium(18/09/06)from Team RAC
Team RAC return to the Kent circuit this weekend confident that they can make history by becoming the first team to achieve a podium finish for a bio-ethanol fuelled race car. WSR (Sunbury-on-Thames) made the switch to bio-fuel for the first time at Knockhill, just over two weeks ago, following support from sponsors RAC and EEMS (the Motorsport Development UK’s initiative Energy Efficient Motorsport).

With this the second visit to Brands Hatch Indy Circuit since April and the 2006 Dunlop MSA British Touring Car Championship season opener, Team RAC will be looking to convert pace to podiums at this season’s penultimate rounds. At just 1.22 miles in length it is the shortest lap on the BTCC calendar providing bumper-to-bumper action and great spectator viewing.

Colin Turkington (Portadown, NI) took to the podium twice back in April at a circuit where traditionally the MG ZS has performed well. Showing great pace at Knockhill, Colin is hoping that the track conditions at Brands Hatch remain dry, unlike the Scottish excursion. He said: "The Team RAC MG has great pace which I believe to be faster than the Honda. Whilst we didn’t get results at Knockhill we certainly showed pace and I’ll be on it this weekend."

Colin (188 points) currently remains second overall in the Drivers’ Championship to Matt Neal (241 points) and mathematically is still in the running for the Championship title. However, Colin remains realistic of his chances. He added: "I had some bad luck at Knockhill which was a major turning point in the Championship. Realistically it needs Matt Neal to have some of that bad luck to enable me to be in with a shout. By no means have I given up the fight and I certainly won’t make it easy for him."

Rob Collard (Eversley, Hampshire) has also performed well at the Kent circuit previously with a race win in 2005 and a podium finish earlier in the 2006 season, although this result was later withdrawn following a racing incident enquiry. Aiming for a top three finish this weekend Rob said: "Brands Hatch is one of the more local circuits for me and one at which I have raced the most miles. Therefore, I’m pretty excited about returning to the circuit. I’d like to turn back the clock to 2005 when I had a race win on the GP Circuit. If I can repeat that performance on the Indy Circuit then it would be a milestone for me and for bio-fuel."

Looking to make history this weekend Team RAC principal Dick Bennetts said: "At Knockhill we made the switch to bio-fuel and we were really pleased with the pace of the car as it appears to have little effect on the engine performance. It was bitterly disappointing not to back this up with podium finishes but we have another opportunity to make history at Brands Hatch. I’m confident that we can makes amends and be back on the podium which is where we belong."

The penultimate rounds at Brands Hatch will be transmitted on ITV on Sunday 24th September starting at 15:00hrs. The programme will include highlights from race one and two with race three being shown live in its entirety. Satellite viewers can watch all three races live on Motors TV commencing at 11:10hrs. Further information on programme replays can be found at www.teamrac.com

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To boldly go … Virgin’s search for green fuel(17/09/06)By Ros Davidson
You could say Will Whitehorn’s career has always had an upward trajectory. He first flew small planes from Turnhouse as a teenage air cadet. After graduating from Aberdeen University, one of his early jobs was as a helicopter crewman in the North Sea.

Now Whitehorn, 46, is heading up Virgin Galactic, Richard Branson’s attempt to get into space tourism. And as soon as December 2007, he could be on one of the first suborbital test flights, rocketing 70 miles above the Earth from the Mojave Desert in California.

It is a highflyers’ club, at least initially. Virgin’s first five space ships are being built by the company of Paul Allen, formerly No 2 at Microsoft, and aviation visionary Bert Rutan, whose private SpaceShipOne clinched the $10 million Ansari X-Prize in 2004.

Those signed up for the first commercial flights, starting in 2009, include actress Victoria Principal and Hollywood’s Bryan Singer, director of the latest Superman film . But Virgin’s goal is more than tourism. Spacecraft are vital for transporting payload, such as satellites. The logistical help of GPS, he says, enables 15% more goods to be shipped internationally. “There will be another two billion people by the time I retire,” says Whitehorn, who started as a graduate trainee at Thomas Cook Group and was market intelligence officer for the TSB Group flotation before jumping ship to public relations then to Virgin, where he is brand development director. And those spacecraft must also be as environmentally benign as possible. Which brings us to Virgin Group’s largest project, green fuels, which Whitehorn has nursed for some time. The group, through its new Virgin Fuels, is investing $400m in biofuels in the US and Europe. And by 2010, the group will have invested about $1 billion in green power, possibly including wind power, solar or even small nuclear, as part of what the group knows internally as the Gaia Capitalism Project. Since 1999, all companies within Virgin have operated on the ass umption energy prices will rise dramatically, regardless of the actual price of oil.

Over the next fortnight Virgin will start testing its diesel trains, some of which run from Birmingham to Dundee and Aberdeen, with a 50:50 mix of biodiesel, or fuel distilled from plants. Virgin’s electric trains already pump 17% of their electricity back into the grid, using a “regenerative” braking system .
Last weekend Virgin announced it had injected $60m into Cilion, a Californian ethanol company co-owned by Vinod Khosla, who co-founded Sun Microsystems and who is now described by both Fortune and Forbes as America’s hottest venture capitalist. Khosla is also famous, in the Golden State, for bankrolling a referendum that would tax California’s oil producers and use the proceeds for alternative energy.
Another equity investor in Cilion is Ron Burkle, the supermarket billionaire who counts ex-president Bill Clinton as one of his closest friends. Burkle has also backed the political campaign of California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger.

Arnie, of course, is also trying to terminate global warming, as evidenced by his recent “climate summit” with Tony Blair, an event attended by Richard Branson. Schwarzenegger has ordered California to produce one-fifth of its own biofuels by 2010; most is now imported 1500 miles from the Midwest.
Cilion’s first of seven ethanol factories, which will make ethanol from maize, will start to be constructed within weeks in the California Central Valley, near a railhead where the grain is already shipped in for cattle feed. The waste from the ethanol, made using a new process that is more energy efficient, will be fed to cattle.

Whitehorn says the ethanol will be competitive with oil – unless it falls below $40 a barrel. Virgin hopes to soon sign a similar deal for the east coast, to serve the population centres there. The US offers tax credits for producing ethanol, a fuel that has also attracted $40m in investment from Bill Gates.
In Britain, too, Virgin wants to distill biodiesel within two years. For train biodiesel, that means in the Midlands near major train depots. The second thrust of Virgin’s biofuel interest is R&D.

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D1 Oils to buy major site for biodiesel production, distribution on Merseyside(14/09/06)

LONDON (AFX) - D1 Oils Plc said it is buying a major site at Bromborough in North West England for 3 mln stg for conversion to biodiesel production, storage and distribution.

D1 said it expects initial capacity of 100,000 tonnes from conversion of the 47-acre site to biodiesel production in 2007, at an estimated capital cost that would be lower than full construction. The group plans to increase refinery capacity by a further 100,000 tonnes in 2008.

Refining operations are anticipated to commence in 2007 D1 expects total UK biodiesel production capacity to reach 420,000 tonnes by end-2008.

D1's intended strategy is to invest up to 8 mln stg in the site during 2007 to convert the site to biodiesel production and provide working capital. D1 is currently reviewing a number of potential funding options for this planned investment.

Production from the site should deliver a contribution to both group revenues and earnings in 2007, D1 added. It is intended that the first phase of operations at the new site will create around 45 new jobs.

Chief executive Elliott Mannis said: 'Refining is a major part of D1's strategy alongside agronomy and trading, and this transaction has the potential to make us the UK's largest biodiesel refiner within two years.'

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