Investing Big Bucks in Biodiesel from Down Under

John Davis

Lignol Energy logoThe owner of Australia’s biggest biodiesel plant is seeing more greenbacks (or, well, whatever the nickname is for Down Under Dollars) for its company. Lignol Energy Corporation, already a leader in advanced biofuels and renewable chemicals, is putting another nearly $1 million US dollars into Territory Biofuels Limited, increasing LEC’s share of TBF to about two-thirds of its holdings.

“We are excited to be increasing our ownership in such a large scale biofuels project. This investment represents the opportunity for our company to have a substantial majority equity interest in potentially a very profitable business”, said Ross MacLachlan, CEO and Chairman of LEC. “Our goal remains to work with TBF with a view to restarting the plant in late 2013 with an appropriate project funding package in place. Once operational, we plan to incorporate plant upgrades to process lower cost feedstocks that should further enhance margins in 2014.”

TBF owns a large scale biodiesel plant in Darwin, Northern Territory. It was originally built in 2008 to turn palm oil and food-grade vegetable oil but closed down in 2009. Next year, there are plans to re-open the plant to run on more feedstocks, including tallow, used cooking oil and palm sludge oil.

Biodiesel, International