Our strategy involves achieving integrated production second generation biodiesel. However, legislation is yet to be published on the mandatory addition of this product in Portugal.
Adding up to 10 per cent of this biological product by 2010, using innovative processes based on robust research and development programmes, will allow Galp Energia to become a benchmark operator.
As an integrated production player of biodiesel covering the whole chain, from raw material to marketing, we can ensure agricultural projects are environmentally and socially sustainable, while maximising emissions reduction throughout the product’s lifecycle. The project will also help enhance the security of supply by diversifying raw material sources.
In 2008, Galp Energia signed a memorandum of cooperation for developing an agro-business project in Mozambique that produces and markets biofuels. This innovative project involves producing jatropha and palm: two energy crops that do not compete with the food chain and can be grown on poorer soils with lower farming potential.
Controlling the entire supply chain helps reduce operational and market risk, giving Galp Energia an important competitive advantage.
The mandatory addition of biofuels to road fuel for 2009 and 2010, made 2009 a landmark year for the biofuels sector in Portugal and Spain. Anticipating this legal requirement, Galp Energia had already introduced these renewable-origin products to motorists’ daily routines. Our activities have helped make Galp Energia a pioneering company in fostering road transport sustainability.
Focus on green diesel
Studies in 2009 proved that green diesel was more effective than road diesel (or even FAME available in the Portuguese market) in curbing greenhouse gas emissions. These studies also documented the benefits of introducing a product into the Portuguese market that, contrary to FAME, has no technical limitations in its use.
Production of vegetable oil
Galp Energia’s biofuel project progressed significantly in 2009, as the first experimental rows of JCL (jatropha curcas Linn) were grown in Mozambique and a project for producing palm oil began in Belém, Brazil. So far, over 640,000 JCL plants have been planted in Mozambique within an area spanning almost 500 hectares. In Brazil, over 1.1 million plants have been grown in nurseries and their planned planting in 2010 will cover an area of around 6,500 hectares.
Both projects reflect our environmental sustainability principles on determining planting sites. These principles have separated plantations from soils with high farming potential or places where they could disrupt and impair natural carbon stocks, such as forests and biodiversity-rich areas.