Investment boost for Brazilian biofuels

In the latest of a series of expansions, New York-based investment fund Comanche Clean Energy has announced it is to invest US$14 million to increase production at its biodiesel plant in Bahia state, Brazil.

Capacity
The upgraded facility will have a capacity of 26 million gallons, or 100 million litres a year (mgy or mly), producing biodiesel from cotton oil, waste oils such as animal fat and used cooking oil, soy and sunflower oil feedstocks. US$10 million of the investment will be used for land acquisition, with the remaining US$4 million used to upgrade the existing plant.

Big way
Comanche is investing in Brazilian biofuels in a big way. It invested US$150 million last year in the Bahian facility and in two ethanol plants in Sao Paolo state. Then in November 2007, it signed an agreement with the government of Maranhao, one of the poorest Brazilian states, to invest US$300 million in building two ethanol and biodiesel plants in the state. The ethanol plant will have a capacity of 300 mly, while the biodiesel operation has a planned capacity of 100 mly. The two plants are due to start production in 2010.

Leading
Brazil is already one of the world's leading biofuel producers and exporters, principally of cane-based ethanol. These latest investments look set to strengthen its position further.

In contrast to many European countries, the industry has strong government support at the highest level. From this month, the country will start mixing an obligatory 2 per cent of biodiesel in all diesel fuel, or roughly 800 million litres of biodiesel per year.