Swedish retailer drops palm-based biodiesel because of environmental concerns

Bioenergy Business
www.bioenergy-business.com
07 November, 2007

OKQ8, a chain of Swedish filling stations, has postponed the launch of its Eco20 biodiesel because of concerns over the environmental effects of the palm oil-derived product. According to OKQ8 environmental manager Camilla Slunge Dowling, the company was not satisfied that palm oil could be produced without destroying rainforests. Environmental groups have been campaigning against the use of palm oil, particularly that produced in Indonesia, where the planting of oil palms is the leading cause of rainforest loss, according to a recent UN report.

Marcus Colchester of the Forest Peoples Programme, a UK-based rights organisation, said: "We now need to see major changes in industry practices and government policy and implementation. There must be an end to forest and peat land destruction for palm oil and respect for the rights of indigenous peoples who are still losing their land to monoculture plantations."

Finnish biodiesel producer Neste Oil was to have supplied the biodiesel to OKQ8. Simo Honkanen, Neste Oil's vice-president for joint ventures and business opportunities, told bioenergy Business that he believed it was possible to ensure palm oil was produced sustainably. The company currently buys palm oil from Malaysia and. to ensure that the oil can be traced back to its source,"we have been putting much effort into developing a chain of custody", he said.

Nonetheless, Neste Oil is working with OKQ8 to use alternative feedstocks such as animal fats and rapeseed oil. Both these raw materials can be used in the company's 170,000t/year plant at Porvoo, which uses the hydrogen-based NExBTL process to produce a high-quality hydrocarbon diesel, said to outperform existing biodiesel grades.

Neste Oil is a member of the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO), an initiative that is establishing a sustainability standard for producing palm oil. The RSPO certification system is due to be unveiled at a meeting in Kuala Lumpur on 20 November, but the first ‘certified' palm oil will not be produced until March 2008, the RSPO says.