Soy oil will be the primary feedstock at the facility as Argentina is one of the world’s largest producers and exporters of soy oil. Construction of the biodiesel plant is subject to obtaining necessary project financing.
The biodiesel facility will be built by De Smet Engineers & Contractors, a specialist biodiesel plant construction firm. Technology and engineering will be provided by Desmet Ballestra, which has operated in Argentina for 28 years.
Desmet Ballestra is also the technology partner for AE Biofuels’s current palm oil and glycerin refining projects and the 50 million gallon (MGY) per year biodiesel plant in Kakinada, India.
The facility will have a feedstock capacity of 250,000 tons per year and is expected to produce 75MGY of biodiesel and 25,000 metric tons of glycerin annually. The glycerin produced at the Argentina plant may be processed into pharmaceutical-grade glycerin at AE Biofuels’s Kakinada plant.
AE Biofuels will own 90% of the entire project. Plant permits and feedstock agreements are in place. Plant completion is expected in late 2009.
Eric McAfee, chairman and CEO of AE Biofuels, said: Today marks an important milestone for our company. By establishing a foothold in Argentina for our expanding biodiesel operations, we are able to take advantage of a beneficial tariff environment that would currently provide an operating margin of approximately 25% while contributing materially to the local economy.
