Special Feature
This is a video report about
World Business: A couple of
years ago, with surging
demand for biofuel from
Europe and riding crude oil
prices, investors rushed to
build plants to turn palm oil
into biodiesel. But with
falling oil prices and
changing opinions towards
biofuel many of those
projects were put on hold.
To adapt, biofuel producers
now have to be a little more
creative.
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Biodiesel in Italy |
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As at 2003, there were 7 biodiesel plants with total production capacity of approximately 600,000 tonnes per year. |
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Italian Biodisel Production (1993 - 2003) |
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Current regulations only allow max 5% and 25% of biodiesel blended into heating oil and fossil diesel for transportation respectively. |
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FAME is mainly used in heating oil market as compared to transportation, due to the following reasons: - |
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* lower distribution cost |
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* lower quality requirements |
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Biodiesel consumption had been growing rapidly from 70,000 tonnes (2000) to 310,000 tonnes (2004) and had surpassed the amount capped for tax relief. |
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In 2001, the finance act extended the tax exemption of FAME to 300,000 tonnes from the previous quota of 125,000 tonnes. However, the Italian Government has just officially published a call for tender for the new quato of 200,000 tonnes of biodiesel for the year 2006. |
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