News Headlines
Today's news in full
News Summaries
Syndication

12th October 2007

Volkswagen and Daimler have each acquired a minority shareholding in CHOREN Industries GmbH, based in Freiberg, to hasten the market introduction of BTL (biomass to liquid), a second-generation synthetic biofuel. Volkswagen and Daimler have been investigating potential applications, the economic feasibility and the energy balance of BTL jointly with CHOREN since 2002, envisaging an annual production capacity of some 200,000 metric tones of BTL.

CHOREN is currently building the world’s first commercial industrial- scale BTL plant (Beta plant) at its Freiberg site. From 2008, the plant is expected to produce approx. 15,000 tonnes of fuel a year,

sufficient to meet the annual requirements of some 15,000 cars.

CHOREN also plans to build the first reference plant in Germany, a ‘Sigma 1’ plant, with an annual capacity of 200,000 tonnes. It is hoped to announce a decision on the location of such a plant by the end of the year. The planned Sigma plants have the potential to contribute significantly towards realizing the German government’s climate protection targets. 10 to 15 CHOREN BTL plants could save up to 3 million metric tons of CO2 by 2020.

“Volkswagen has been calling for and supporting the development and industrial production of second-generation biofuels, for a long time,” Dr. Wolfgang Steiger, Head of Group Research, Powertrains, underlined. “Compared with the first generation, these second-generation biofuels can in fact as much as triple hectare yields, they do not compete with food production and they help to reduce greenhouse gases by approx. 90%.”

VW and Daimler will also be stepping up cooperation to shape the framework for the sustainable market introduction of BTL fuels. “The realization of Sigma 1 needs a calculable and long-term perspective for the sale of BTL beyond 2015. Present considerations which are exclusively based on CO2 for established technologies will not be sufficient for introducing innovations,” CHOREN CEO Tom Blades commented.

BTL is produced from various types of biogenic feedstock and residue, and thus “hardly competes” with food and fodder production. No adjustment of existing fuel infrastructure is necessary for its distribution and storage and it is compatible with current as well as future diesel engine technology.

Volkswagen says the “socially, ecologically and economically-compatible” cultivation of organic resources for the production of second-generation biofuels could be achieved by taxation on biofuels oriented to both CO2 efficiency (primary criteria) and sustainability criteria such as the use of fertilizers or pesticides, the protection of rainforests, social standards and employment potential.

<< Previous

Whole Day's News

Next >>