Danchenko invites foreign investment in Belarus biofuels sector

WARSAW, 12 June 2008 — Mr. Ivan Danchenko, chairman of Belgospicheprom, today told an international conference on biofuels in central and eastern Europe that Belarus has unique and attractive conditions for producing biofuels and for foreign investment in the industry.

Speaking at the FO Licht-organised conference in Warsaw, Poland, Danchenko restated the Belarus Government’s policy of achieving a share of 25% of total energy use for alternative energy sources, including biofuels, within the next five years. 

He told the delegates that several policy measures have already been instituted to encourage foreign investment in biofuels, including a new and more favourable tax policy, announced earlier this year, and flexible measures to make foreign direct investment in the sector simpler and more straightforward.

Danchenko stressed the availability of large expanses of arable land to produce biomass crops for biofuels, and pointed out that almost one-third of Belarus’ territory is covered in forest, a positive factor for forthcoming cellulose-to-ethanol second generation technology (CTE).

On biodiesel, he said the provision for production of rapeseed oil in 2008 is over two million tonnes, that methanol is available in quantity to finish the product, and that foreign investors will find they can produce biodiesel in very competitive circumstances.

With regard to bioethanol, Danchenko pointed to the proposed Greenfield Ethanol Mozyr plant as an example of what can be done. Apart from grains, he said, from one to 1.5 million tonnes of sugar beet are available annually as feedstocks for first generation ethanol production, with vast quantities of biomass available for CTE production both from crop wastes and other sources, but above all from the lands contaminated by the Chernobyl nuclear accident

He added that, in an ironic development, global warming has now made it possible to grow corn (maize) in Belarus. Six hundred thousand tonnes were grown in 2007, with 700,000 tonnes projected for 2008.

Mr. Danchenko told the delegates: “We have several programmes to cultivate bio-crops and biomass on the affected lands for biofuel production. Our studies show that the fruits of the plants are free of radioactive substances. Traces remain in stems and waste, and is thus under control as far as storage and waste is concerned.

“We need your technology to develop this industry, potentially a huge one given the circumstances in Belarus. We have the land and the raw materials, including wood waste for biomass. We have a tax regime and a legal framework favourable to foreign investment. So, it’s simple — we invite you to come to Belarus, examine the facts and evaluate what we offer. We are sure you will decide that investing in our biofuels development is a very good investment.”

Danchenko was speaking at ‘Biofuels in Central and Eastern Europe’, a two-day conference organised by leading biofuels and agribusiness consultants FO Licht, at which over 70 delegates will hear leading industry figures and policy makers explain the prospects for the biofuels sector in the area.

Speakers include representatives of several governments, the European Commission, transport companies, biofuels producers and technology experts, and industry analysts. The conference continues today, Thursday 12 June, when it will hear a presentation by Michael Rietveld, chief executive of Greenfield Project Management Ltd, on the development of the company’s projects to build bioethanol refineries in Belarus in a public-private partnership with Belbiopharm.