Company sells biofuel to Lufthansa

Sun Biofuels Moçambique has exported its first biofuel by selling 30 tons of jatropha oil to German airline Lufthansa, the company’s director told Mozambican newspaper Diário de Mozambique. Luís Gouveia said that Lufthansa had ordered the jatropha oil from Sun Biofuels Moçambique, based in Manica province in central Mozambique, for the tests it is carrying out with a view to using these types of fuel in its aircraft.

The biofuel exported by the Mozambican company, which is a subsidiary of British company Sun Biofuels, was first refined in Mozambique and it second stage of refining, which turned it into kerosene, was carried out in Helsinki, Finland, before being used in the German air carrier’s tests, said the director of Sun Biofuels Moçambique.
As well as the civil aviation market, the automotive sector and the sector to supply energy to industrial and domestic units are other focuses of biofuel producers in Mozambique, said the director of Sun Biofuels Moçambique.

Sun Biofuels Mozambique has invested US$9 million to produce jatropha in an area of 3,000 hectares in Manica and employs 1,000 workers. Despite economic profits gained, biofuel is nevertheless criticized as being dangerous for the planet's carbon balance, and food supply as well as one of the main reasons for deforestation. (macauhub/sadocc)