National Toll Roads (NTR) has invested €30m in Emerald Bio-diesel GmbH, and is now the largest shareholder in the German bio-diesel facility.
NTR said Emerald Bio-diesel will soon start construction of an oil mill and bio-diesel facility in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, around 100 km north of Berlin.
The facility will be in production before the end of 2006, and will initially produce 50 million litres of bio-diesel from rapeseed oil, which will be up-scaled to 150 million litres by the end of 2008.
NTR said the bio-diesel is destined for the German transport market and arrangements are already in place with large transport companies.
'Our entry into the bio-diesel sector is compatible with NTR's existing environmental services businesses and will complement our expertise in integrated waste management and recycling, renewable energy, water infrastructure and wastewater treatment', said Jim Barry, CEO of NTR.
He added that NTR had been encouraged by support from the Federal Government in Germany, through the favourable taxation regime it has in place for bio-fuel production.
Germany is the leading producer of bio-diesel in Europe and capacity will exceed 2 billion litres in 2006. It is the only EU member state to meet its obligations under this year's EU Bio-fuels Directive.
The project has been developed with EPC, a German engineering company.
