The Conference hosted a Conference on Jatropha, the alternative to the biodiesel raw

The Palacio Municipal de Congresos of Madrid hosted the last April 17 and 18 of the first European meeting for the production and the industry of biofuel, the contest "Biodiesel Summit", a space for the exhibition of conferences with regard to the use of biodiesel these days. The auto production of biodiesel is now within the reach of any agricultural undertaking wishing to provide their own fleet or sell its biodiesel. The major beneficiaries are agricultural or cattle farms and private construction or taxis or public transportation fleets, for example. The new technology of processing of raw material presented at the meeting allows the "homemade" biodiesel production plant compact and mobile, no larger than a truck.

Madrid Zabir Global Transport Development company has compact German technology that can be installed in any "corner" by its reduced dimensions. The production process is also completely closed and automated so it is not harmful to the environment environment.

Until very recently, it was not profitable to produce small quantities of biodiesel because they did not cover the costs of the preparation of the raw material (vegetable oils or fats) for conversion in biodiesel. The new technology has eliminated these steps costly, while maintaining the quality of the final product. This now allows the annual production of between 450 up to 3,600 tons of biodiesel with this technology - for instance equivalent to the average consumption of a public transport company - considering that the plant operates automatically 24 hours a daycontrolled by PLC (programmable logic controller). Each production process takes between 6 and 8 hours. It therefore has a very low labour costs and of course, the final product has a cost much lower than the price of diesel, depending on the availability and/or price of acquisition of the raw material.

According to André Baken, organizer of the first European meeting for Biodiesel, "the new technology opens up the possibility that such an agricultural cooperative uses annually between 300 and 5000 has to produce soybean, rapeseed, sunflower, or even start planting Jatropha and novelty is that he can turn this raw directly and in own production in" biodiesel. "A cooperative would need only a plant for extraction of oil from seeds and the production of biodiesel plant". This investment is between 1.8 to 2 million euros. The cost of the transformation in the world's largest (4,000 t) installation is 10 euro cents per liter (13 including depreciation). The cost of biodiesel can be calculated by adding the cost of production of the raw material, considering that the cost of movement of the vehicles also low because you can use your own biodiesel instead of buying it.

The installation should be completely in a container of a truck Standard and complies with all European standards in terms of safety, including the standards of ATEX explosion protection.

The first European Conference for producers and biodiesel industry brought together 36 international experts in this field on the source, technology, sustainability, amount, national and European policy among other rigorous current issues in this emerging industry.

The Conference was attended with other 35 speakers and 25 exhibitors, offering all kinds of products, equipment, technology and services for this sector

Biofuel Summit hosted space also to report on Jatropha. And it is that if it is producing raw material for biodiesel, this plant is an interesting alternative to soy, sunflower or canola.

First of all because it is not edible, so not competing with the food sector. Secondly, its cultivation has a high yield per hectare and requires little care, which makes it suitable for soil unsuitable for other agricultural activities.

Jatropha plantations also help alleviate soil degradation, desertification and deforestation. Spain has large tracts of land desert semi to this plantation.

Jatropha it can be for these reasons also contribute to increasing farm income. In the meeting of biofuels, there was a key presentation of Winfried Rijssenbeek, recognized expert in this plant, which offered to the entire sector, including agricultural authorities, the opportunity to see first hand this great opportunity to Spain.

The Conference was attended with other 35 speakers and 25 exhibitors, offering all kinds of products, equipment, technology and services for this sector.