GreenGold to start up biodiesel plant in May

U.S.-based company GreenGold Ray Energies Inc. will start up a 180 million gallon per year (gpy) biodiesel plant in the Philippines by early May. The plant is currently being built in Nasipit Port, Agusan del Norte, in Mindanao. It will use an estimated 65,000 metric tons per year (mtpy) of methanol feedstock when fully operational. Though the company has not disclosed where it will source its methanol, it said that its jatropha oil feedstock will come from local plantations. GreenGold said it will sell its biodiesel output in the domestic market and the surplus will be exported to Europe and Japan. (February 4, 2009)