MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Uruguayan company to sell biofuel to The Netherlands

This biomass fuel is highly appreciated in Europe for its environmental advantages

Uruguay is to ship to The Netherlands 300 tons of biofuels from ALUR's corn oil distillery in the Capurro neighborhood of Montevideo. These are the first biodiesel productions from distillery corn oils, it was also reported this week.

The product is highly appreciated in the European market because of its low level of carbon dioxide emissions, which can be reduced by 85% compared to fossil diesel.

The 300 tons of this biofuel were produced at the Capurro plant, following the revaluation of a fatty by-product derived from obtaining bioethanol at the Paysandú plant.

“After refining we bring it to the Capurro plant where we produce a biodiesel which has its particularities due to the difficulty of the raw material, but which has export quality and from the environmental point of view is a highly valued product in Europe,” Alcoholes del Uruguay (ALUR) Capurro's export manager Ignacio Pérez explained.

In total, 10 tanks were to be loaded between Thursday and Friday and sent to a storage facility to wait for the export date.

The Capurro plant also renewed its international sustainability and carbon certification (ISCC) to produce biofuels, a prerequisite for marketing goods in the European market. This German certification is one of the most widely recognized in the world for recycled materials and biofuels. Through the implementation of a management system and the development of independent audits, it ensures and demonstrates compliance with the sustainability criteria established by the European directive for biofuels processed from biomass.

ALUR is an agro-industrial company dedicated to refining sugar, the distillation of alcohols, and the production of biofuels, diesel, and other chemical elements. It was created in 2006 when the State acquired the sugar mill of the Cooperativa Agrícola Limitada Norte Uruguayo (CALNU), in the city of Bella Unión in the department (province) of Artigas. It is a private company, albeit a subsidiary of the National Administration of Fuels, Alcohol and Portland (or ANCAP Group) and Petróleos de Venezuela, as a minority shareholder.

It has three plants nationwide: In Capurro (Montevideo), Paysandú, and Bella Unión.