Singapore to setup 2 biodiesel plants

Singapore's petrochemicals industry got a boost on Wednesday, as two foreign companies announced they would set up biodiesel plants here. These facilities will be a first for Singapore, and will attract more than S$80 million in investments. The two biodiesel plants will be built on Jurong Island, Singapore's petrochemicals hub.

The first is from a German family business, Peter Cremer, which will initially invest up to S$34 million in the Jurong Island plant with a capacity of 200,000 metric tons per annum. The second biodiesel plant, a joint venture between Wilmar Holdings and Archer Daniels Midland Company, will have an initial capacity of 150,000 metric tons a year, which can be raised to 300,000. Most of the products will be exported initially.

Both companies say Singapore was selected for their first biodiesel plant in Asia because of its excellent connectivity. Biodiesel is a growing energy source and is said to be a cleaner fuel than traditional petroleum-based products. From Singapore, the plants will have easy access to abundant palm oil feedstock from the neighbouring countries of Malaysia and Indonesia.

- 200K metric tons is roughly 1.4 million barrels. But that's per year, so per day it's around 4K barrels. So it's rather small-scale compared to a petroleum refinery which can do 1 million barrels every *day*. Well, anyway, it's a start. But I wonder, what is the EROEI? Most indications are that biofuels are barely over the critical 1.0 level, and there's always the question of whether available arable land is better used to grow food for the people or fuel for the machines.

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