Jatoil takes a different approach to biodiesel production

Jatoil is a new Australian company that is about to be publicly listed. Their business plan is based around becoming producers of Jatropha oil, and subsequently biodiesel, through partnerships with Jatropha growers in Asia and selling the final product to Europe, America and Asia. According to the Jatoil prospectus:

Jatoil has recently entered into an agreement to acquire a 50% interest in PT Biodiesel Austindo, a company incorporated in Indonesia with projects involving planting of the biodiesel feedstock crop Jatropha curcas in Indonesia.

Biodiesel Austindo have memoranda of understanding with farming cooperatives for jatropha cultivation covering over 240,000 ha of land in the Indonesian provinces of Lampung and Nusa Tenggara Timur. Their objective is to secure contracts for a further 350,000 ha. Under these arrangements, local farmers provide their land, on which they plant, weed and water their jatropha crops, and then pick and defruit the jatropha seed. In return, Biodiesel Austindo provides the farmers with seed and other farming inputs, training and technical support. To support the start-up, Biodiesel Austindo will provide farmers with a special payment for the first year crop value and guarantee to purchase subsequent seed production at market prices.

Jatoil also intends to purchase 3.05% of Biodiesel Australia Limited, an Australian company with experience in the development and operation of rapid-reaction portable biodiesel production units.

Biodiesel Australia claims to possess patents and in-house knowledge covering a unique rapid reaction process for producing biodiesel from feedstock tallow and oils. The company has implemented this process in the form of small, portable and integrated biodiesel production units. The units are modular and can be operated singly or linked in parallel to increase production output. Biodiesel Australia has installed a demonstration unit in Malaysia to process palm oil, and plans to manufacture commercial units with a production capacity of 5–10 million litres per annum.

So there you have it. An Australian company whose complete production chain is destined to be built offshore. Considering the difficulty Australian based biodiesel producers are facing at the moment the decision to move offshore is probably a good one as long as all those hectares of Jatropha aren’t responsible for the destruction of more Indonesian rain forest.

Source: Jatoil via SMH (thanks for the tip Sreenivas)