Daimler, VW Invest In Biofuel Maker

Posted by Giles Clark, London

Two German car manufacturers Daimler and Volkswagen have each acquired a minority equity position in biofuel producer Choren Industries, following agreements signed last week (11th October). Daimler and VW have been working with Choren since 2002 to evaluate BTL’s (Biomass to Liquid) technical, commercial and environmental impact. The participation of the two companies in Choren is, they say, a strong sign of commitment towards the use of 2nd generation biofuels and supports the project development of world scale BTL plants of 250 million litre capacity as a further step towards a wide spread market introduction.

Choren is presently completing the world’s first industrial scale BTL plant (Beta) at its facilities in Freiberg, planned to produce 18 million litre annually as of mid 2008. This would be enough to fuel 15,000 vehicles each year. In addition, Choren is actively pursuing the development of a world scale plant, so called Sigma plant, with an output of 200,000 tons per annum (250 million litre). The exact location in Germany will be announced before the end of this year. Such Sigma plants have the potential to contribute significantly towards the German governments’ environmental targets. By 2020 10 to 15 such Sigma plants could reduce CO2 emmissions by over three million tons per year.

Biofuel Review, Oct. 17, 2007