Do You Know the Way to San Jose (dos Campos)? Total, and Its Biofuels Babies
by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest) …And, today, the story of advanced biofuels in Brazil amped up considerably yesterday with the announcement that TAM Airlines in conjunction with Airbus, jatropha biofuel producer Brasil Ecodiesel, and AirBP (the specialized aviation division of BP) are jointly developing a bio-SPK manufacturing facility with a 80,000 ton per year capacity that is expected to come online in 2013. The studies for the project are being undertaken by Yale University.
…The news reminds us that, while most of the coverage of Brazil has focused on ethanol production and distribution into its well-established, subsidy-free alternative fuels market, there is substantial momentum building up in Brazil on the diesel and jet fuel side.
…Last December, Total tipped its hand on strategy when it disclosed that it will enter the Brazilian cane industry through its technology partner Amyris—who is in turn teamed with Sao Martinho—and hopes to secure 5%-10% of Brazilian cane by 2020. The country intends to produce to produce chemical products like biolubricants, jet biofuel, biochemicals, biodiesel out of sugarcane.
…It’s no accident that BP announced yesterday that they are selling off their refineries in Texas and California, while retaining their asset in Washington state, raising $4.4 billion in the process and reducing their US crude oil production capacity by half. … According to BP’s new chief Ed Dudley, the Texas and California refineries are primarily producers of gasoline, and BP sees that bio-based challenge as continuing to knock down the growth opportunities there. The Washington refinery is more generally aligned with diesel and jet fuel. READ MORE and MORE
