ARGENTINA: Argentine engineer develops biodesel plant prototype in Chacabuco, Buenos Aires province, to produce alternative fuel source from soy beans

Record ID: 448032

  • Title: ARGENTINA: Argentine engineer develops biodesel plant prototype in Chacabuco, Buenos Aires province, to produce alternative fuel source from soy beans
  • Date: 22nd October 2005
  • Summary: SUNSET
  • Embargoed: 6th November 2005 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Argentina
  • Country: Argentina
  • Topics: Science / Technology,Energy
  • Reuters ID: LVAC5EAYVWWW190GCHGPKAWEI5L1
  • Story Text: Armed with 12 tonnes of soybeans, a young Argentine engineer named Edmundo Defferrari can produce enough biofuel in one day to fill the tanks of five soy trucks. Backed by local seed company Don Mario, Defferrari developed a biodiesel plant prototype in Chacabuco, Buenos Aires province, at a cost of 450,000 pesos ($152,000). With 12 tonnes of soybeans, the small plant in Chacabuco -- some 145 miles (230 km) west of Buenos Aires -- produces about 1,400 liters (364 gallons) of biodiesel and 10.2 tonnes of expellers, which are used for animal feed.
    The engineer's goal is to sell similar plants to farmers who are anxious to lower their fuel costs or even achieve self-sufficiency in the face of soaring oil prices. "Seventy six percent of the diesel consumption in Argentina is consumed by the agricultural sector and the agricultural sector is found throughout the nation. So we have an enormous logistical advantage because we consume fuel in the same place where we could produce it. This would reduce not just the freight costs but also the contamination, because we would even reduce consumption," Defferrari said.
    The cost of this biodiesel is 70 centavos per liter (about 95 U.S. cents per gallon), roughly half of what conventional diesel costs at the pump. Analysts say biodiesel is the renewable fuel with the most promise in Argentina, the world's top exporter of soyoil and sunflower seed oil.
    According to industrial engineer Luciano Pugawko, while economic factors are hugely important when it comes to also paramount.
    "The economic variable is a deciding factor when one thinks of a plant of this type, but nor can we forget the strategic variable, that is to say, one tends to topple an old paradigm which is energetic dependence. It's not just an advantage from the economic point of view but also there is a strategic advantage," he said.
    Biodiesel is made with vegetable oils -- such as soy, sunseed, grapeseed or palm oil -- and animal fats, and it can be used purely or blended with conventional diesel. As the world's No.2 corn exporter, Argentina is also well-positioned to develop ethanol, an alternative to gasoline that is made with corn or sugar cane. Neighboring Brazil is the world's top ethanol producer and exporter. Bionerg, the company created by Defferrari and Don Mario, is focused for now on addressing farmers' needs. But it does not rule out producing biodiesel on a larger scale as the international context for biofuels improves. Analysts say measures being taken worldwide that require the blending of fossil fuels with biofuels will ensure rising demand in coming years. In the European Union, for example, all fuels must contain a minimum of 5.75 percent of biofuels by the year 2010.
    Another advantage of "green" fuels is their price relative to crude oil, the cost of which recently surpassed that of soybean, palm and rapeseed oil for the first time ever.
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