Biofuel boon

Lotos Biopaliwa, the biofuels arm of Polish refiner Grupa Lotos, has signed a zł.500-million contract with Komagra, an agricultural-products firm. Komagra will provide Lotos Biopaliwa with raw rapeseed oil for the next five years.

Komagra's oil will allow Lotos Biopaliwa to produce fatty acid methyl ester (FAME), which can be mixed with conventional diesel fuel or used alone as biodiesel. The chemical will be produced in a new plant in Czechowice-Dziedzice in Silesia. The plant's capacity is estimated at 100,000 tonnes annually. That level of production would make Lotos Biopaliwa one of the leaders in the Polish biofuels market, along with PKN Orlen's Rafineria Trzebinia and Elstar Oils.

The new plant will be built by MAN Ferrostaal AG and Prochem and will cost zł.80 million. Production is expected to begin in Q2 2008.  "Probably all of [the production] will be sold to Grupa Lotos to produce biofuels," said Marcin Zachowicz, a spokesperson for the Grupa Lotos.

Lotos Biopaliwa was established in February 2006 by Lotos Czechowice, formerly the Czechowice Refinery, which has a 100-percent stake in the company.

Lotos Czechowice is 80-percent owned by Grupa Lotos and is one of the most important fuel-distribution centers in the south of Poland. The project was created to fulfill EU directives on increasing alternative energy usage in Poland to 5.75 percent by 2010.

Formerly Młyny Polskie (Polish Mills), Komagra comprises a group of companies throughout Poland. The rapeseed oil it will deliver to Lotos Biopaliwa will be produced at Komagra's rapeseed-oil press plant in Tychy, built in 2005.