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D1 Oils reports progress in slimmed-down jatropha energy crop business
Added 520 days ago - Biofuels company D1 Oils has reported good progress with its global energy crop planting business, after its decision in April to withdraw from biodiesel refining activities in the UK.
The London-based company has now closed its refining sites at Middlesbrough and Bromborough, after the biodiesel operations were undercut by subsidised biofuels from abroad. Its management is optimistic of securing offers for refining equipment and the sites themselves.
"We are pleased to have demonstrated through the delivery of our first crude vegetable oil the potential of jatropha as a biofuel crop."
Lord Oxburgh, D1 Oils
Instead, the company is focused on developing new types of "sustainable" energy crops and also to cultivate the tropical oilseed-bearing tree Jatropha curcas to produce oil suitable as a biodiesel feedstock.
Reporting its interim financial results for the six months to June 30, 2008, on Tuesday, the company said it has now delivered its first 1,000 tonnes of crude jatropha oil.
Some 257,370 hectares of land are now hosting jatropha plantations under the feedstock production division of D1 that is 50% owned by BP - the plantations are mostly located in India, with smaller operations in South-East Asia and Africa. This side of the company, called D1-BP Fuel Crops Ltd, is aiming to bring its plantations to 300,000 hectares by the end of the year.
The long-term plan is to have one million hectares planted within the next four years.
Volumes of oil will increase in 2009 as existing trees mature and younger trees become productive, the company added.
With this year's controversy over biofuels hitting global food prices, D1 Oils noted that Jatropha produces an inedible oil feedstock and can make use of land that is not suitable for arable agriculture.
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