Volkswagen and Daimler have each acquired a stake in the biofuel company Choren to help develop a market for second generation biofuels.
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In a statement Volkswagen said that Volkswagen and Daimler have been investigating potential applications, the economic feasibility and the energy balance of biomass-to-liquid (BTL) fuels jointly with Choren since 2002. The shareholdings acquired by the two companies are an important step towards the systematic use of second-generation biofuels and support the further project development of world scale BTL production plants.
Choren is currently building what it describes as the world’s first commercial industrial scale BTL plant (Beta plant) at its Freiberg site. From 2008, the plant is expected to produce around 15,000 metric tons of fuel a year. This would be sufficient to meet the annual requirements of some 15,000 cars. It is planning a second plant with an annual capacity of 200,000 metric tons, although a location for the plant has not yet been decided.
Volkswagen estimates that ten to 15 BTL plants could save up to 3 million metric tons of CO2 by 2020.
“Volkswagen has been calling for and supporting the development and industrial production of second-generation biofuels, known as SunFuels, for a long time,” said Wolfgang Steiger, head of group research, powertrains. “Compared with the first generation, these second-generation biofuels can in fact as much as triple hectare yields, they do not compete with food production and they help to reduce greenhouse gases by approx. 90%. With this financial commitment, the Volkswagen Group is supporting the industrial-scale realization of biogenic synthetic fuels as part of its ‘Driving ideas’ campaign, and thus systematically continuing to move closer to sustainable mobility.”
