Veolia to launch Biodiesel facility in France

16/10/08

Veolia Environmental Services today announced that it has been engaged to construct its first biodiesel* production plant in France. The facility will be located near Paris in the region of Limay.

This project forms part of the second phase of a program established by the French government to aide the development of biofuel, and thus, promote the use of renewable energies and assist the fight against the greenhouse gases. This project – which is due to commence in 2008 - is an innovative industrial project based on a strategically located facility.

An innovative industrial project

The project consists of the establishment of a manufacturing plant for the production of resource-recovered biodiesel from used food oils that will be blended with virgin vegetable oils.

The plant will produce 60,000 tons of biodiesel and further underscores Veolia's know-how and leadership of the resource recovery and renewable energy industries.

A strategic facility

It is envisaged that this new facility will be located near Paris in the harbor zone of Limay Porcheville, near VES' existing resource recovery and treatment facility for hazardous wastes.

The sitting of the facility here will allow for

• -water transportation of incoming materials and produced products,
• the development of energy exchange synergies within Veolia due to the facility being located in close proximity to existing VES SARP Industries sites and the direct collection of used food oils from a dedicated subsidiary of VES.

*Biodiesel is one of the 2 "clean" fuels or biofuel. These fuels are derived from the fermentation of sugar contained in certain plants (bioethanol) or from the transformation vegetable oil (biodiesel).
The French government decided to accelerate the development of the production of the biocarburants by authorizing the construction of 16 new production facilities in order to reach a level of 5.75% usage by 2008.