Singapore - A Finnish firm plans to build the world's largest bio-diesel plant in Singapore to convert palm oil into fuel for cars, trucks and other vehicles. The cost for Neste Oil will amount to 550 million euros (814 million US dollars) and create 100 jobs, the firm said Friday.
Bio-diesel is a renewable fuel, derived from crops that can be repeatedly grown.
Singapore's proximity to palm-oil production sites in Malaysia and Indonesia was a factor for locating Neste's first overseas bio-diesel plant in the city-state, said executive vice-president Jarmo Honkamaa. Singapore also contains a major oil-refining hub.
Greenhouse-gas emissions from bio-diesel are 40 to 60 per cent less than from conventional diesel, Neste said.
When completed in 2010, the plant on a 19-hectare plot will be able to produce 800,000 tonnes of bio-diesel every year.
Most of the output will be shipped to Europe.
Norway's Renewable Energy Corp said last month that it plans to build a 6.3-billion-Singapore-dollar (4.6-billion-US-dollar) solar panel plant in Singapore, the world's largest.
