30-11-07

Nearly 20 biofuel plants could be operating in Colombia within 10 years, the country's hydrocarbons director Julio Cesar Vera told in Medellin, Colombia.
Colombia's government aims to have more than 3 mm ha of African palm under cultivation within the next decade. The country currently has 44 mm ha of farmland that could be used for biofuel production without endangering the country's food supply.

Typical investment in a biofuel plant ranges from $ 30 mn-35 mm and the country could eventually produce as much as 25 mm litres per day, Vera said.
Colombia's President Alvaro Uribe laid the first stone of an ethanol plant in Boyaca department in early November. The plant, which is slated to begin operations in mid-2009, will produce close to 300,000 l/d of ethanol from sugar beets. Roughly $ 16 mm is being invested in the plant, but a total of $ 270 mm will go into the entire project, which will see more than 10,000 ha of land put into beet production. A second ethanol plant set for construction in Cundinamarca will produce nearly 600,000 l/d starting in 2010.

Biodiesel production in Colombia is being driven by a government incentive program, which removes taxes on the green fuel, and new regulations that stipulate a 5 % admixture.
Colombian diesel will be blended with 10 % biodiesel beginning in 2010 and 20 % in 2012. Colombia produces 1.1 mm l/d of ethanol, making it the second-largest producer of the biofuel in Latin America after Brazil.

Source: www.bnamericas.com