16/5/06 (Platinum Today) -  Car manufacturer Toyota and oil distribution firm Nippon Oil have together developed a powerful form of bio-diesel using palm oil, it has been reported.

According to the Nihon Keizai Shimbun (Japan Economic Times), the two companies have created fuel from a renewable source that guarantees performance to match that of standard, mineral-based diesel.

Bio-diesel derived from rape seed oil and other feedstock produces less energy than conventional diesel. The version developed by Toyota and Nippon Oil, however, is refined by injecting highly pressurised hydrogen so as to extract the oxygen.

Japanese-based Nippon Oil plans to manufacture the bio-diesel for commercial release within the next four years, reports suggest.

Meanwhile, in the US, Green Star Products is to construct vast bio-refinery complexes in north-west America, eventually achieving production capacities of 100 million gallons per year. The facilities may be the first in the world to combine bio-diesel and biomass ethanol production.

The European Union is the globe's largest producer of bio-diesel. The European Bio-diesel Board announced last month that output rocketed 65 per cent in 2005 to 3.2 million tonnes, compared to 250,000 tonnes in the US.


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