Euro-Indian joint venture to enter Brazilian biofuels industry
India's Praj Industries, an engineering and agriprocessing equipment provider and the Norwegian Aker Kvaerner Group, an engineering and construction services company with expertise in the oil and gas sector, are creating a joint venture to enter the biofuels industry in Brazil. While Praj will hold 60%, Aker Kvaerner will hold 40% of the shareholding in the new company.
The proposed joint venture will combine Aker Kvaerner's execution capabilities and extensive European market knowledge with the technological expertise of Praj. The cooperation will offer European customers access to the complete scope of services required for license, plant design and construction of biofuel facilities. In 2006, Praj and Aker Kvaerner entered into an alliance for strategic cooperation on bioethanol projects in Europe. Based on market interest in the alliance and the fact that Europe will follow a binding guideline of 10 per cent biofuels blending by 2020, thereby expanding the market opportunity for biofuel plants, the two companies commenced discussions to extend their association by forming a joint-venture.
Focus on biodiesel
With nearly 60% of the incremental growth in world transport fuels being diesel based and with almost all countries round the world being major diesel consumers, on and off the road, the Praj's management felt its was the right time to address the biodiesel technology market. With its engineering expertise and its understanding of agri-based processing, Praj is focusing on offering its multi-feedstock biodiesel plants. Praj will thus offer turnkey solutions including technology, engineering, plant & equipment and project management services for biodiesel projects.
The company is currently examining acquisition proposals to enter the Brazilian biofuels market, where both new biodiesel and bioethanol projects will be launched as well:
bioenergy :: biofuels :: energy :: sustainability :: ethanol :: biodiesel :: engineering :: Norway :: India :: Brazil ::
"The board has given in-principle approval for an initial investment up to 40 crore to establish the JV in Europe, and commence operations in Brazil," the release said. The Company is currently examining certain acquisition proposals with a view to enter Brazilian biofuels technology, plant & equipment market and establish an operational base in the country.
Ethanol production in Brazil is poised to double by 2010. Today, Brazil is at a major turning point in terms of technology and plant designs, which is why Praj sees an opportunity to serve these changing requirements.
Praj Industries is becoming an important engineering firm in the biofuels sector. Earlier this year, it snapped up a major contract to design and equip a bioethanol plant as part of a €200 million biofuels project in Belgium (earlier post), and it is currently building five more such plants in Colombia. Three of those plants have a capacity of 250,000 liters/day, the others have a capacity of 100,000 and 300,000 liters per day, respectively - or a total annual production capacity of 420 million liters (111 million gallons).
Vinod Khosla, co-founder of Sun Microsystems and serial green entrepreneur, is holding a stake in the Indian company and acts as a facilitator.
Brazil's new biodiesel program aims to supply 2% of the biofuel to be mixed in all diesel fuel by 2010. A special 'Social Fuel Seal' policy that seems to be attractive to investors has been implemented. It ties small-scale feedstock producers, some of who belong to Brazil's poorest rural classes, to the projects, which results in increased food, energy and income security (earlier post).
The proposed joint venture will combine Aker Kvaerner's execution capabilities and extensive European market knowledge with the technological expertise of Praj. The cooperation will offer European customers access to the complete scope of services required for license, plant design and construction of biofuel facilities. In 2006, Praj and Aker Kvaerner entered into an alliance for strategic cooperation on bioethanol projects in Europe. Based on market interest in the alliance and the fact that Europe will follow a binding guideline of 10 per cent biofuels blending by 2020, thereby expanding the market opportunity for biofuel plants, the two companies commenced discussions to extend their association by forming a joint-venture.
Focus on biodiesel
With nearly 60% of the incremental growth in world transport fuels being diesel based and with almost all countries round the world being major diesel consumers, on and off the road, the Praj's management felt its was the right time to address the biodiesel technology market. With its engineering expertise and its understanding of agri-based processing, Praj is focusing on offering its multi-feedstock biodiesel plants. Praj will thus offer turnkey solutions including technology, engineering, plant & equipment and project management services for biodiesel projects.
The company is currently examining acquisition proposals to enter the Brazilian biofuels market, where both new biodiesel and bioethanol projects will be launched as well:
bioenergy :: biofuels :: energy :: sustainability :: ethanol :: biodiesel :: engineering :: Norway :: India :: Brazil ::
"The board has given in-principle approval for an initial investment up to 40 crore to establish the JV in Europe, and commence operations in Brazil," the release said. The Company is currently examining certain acquisition proposals with a view to enter Brazilian biofuels technology, plant & equipment market and establish an operational base in the country.
Ethanol production in Brazil is poised to double by 2010. Today, Brazil is at a major turning point in terms of technology and plant designs, which is why Praj sees an opportunity to serve these changing requirements.
Praj Industries is becoming an important engineering firm in the biofuels sector. Earlier this year, it snapped up a major contract to design and equip a bioethanol plant as part of a €200 million biofuels project in Belgium (earlier post), and it is currently building five more such plants in Colombia. Three of those plants have a capacity of 250,000 liters/day, the others have a capacity of 100,000 and 300,000 liters per day, respectively - or a total annual production capacity of 420 million liters (111 million gallons).
Vinod Khosla, co-founder of Sun Microsystems and serial green entrepreneur, is holding a stake in the Indian company and acts as a facilitator.
Brazil's new biodiesel program aims to supply 2% of the biofuel to be mixed in all diesel fuel by 2010. A special 'Social Fuel Seal' policy that seems to be attractive to investors has been implemented. It ties small-scale feedstock producers, some of who belong to Brazil's poorest rural classes, to the projects, which results in increased food, energy and income security (earlier post).
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
Links to this post:
Create a Link
<< Home