SAO PAULO, March 22 (Reuters) – Braskem (BRKM5.SA), Latin America’s largest petrochemicals company, may open a second factory to produce polyethylene from sugar cane-based ethanol, once a first plant starts up around October, a project manager at the firm said on Monday.

Braskem expects to become the first commercial-scale producer of polyethylene made from a renewable source when a plant in Brazil begins producing the building block resin used in plastics at the Triunfo plant, said Leonora Novaes, Braskem’s commercial head for green polyethylene. Leer más »

BUENOS AIRES – The Argentine government said Friday that, in compliance with a 2006 law, all diesel fuel in the country must contain at least a 5 percent of biodiesel.

“Biodiesel will be incorporated into the energy matrix, initially accounting for 5 percent of domestic demand, that is 742 million liters (196 million gallons) per year, which is equivalent to the amount of conventional diesel fuel imported by Argentina in 2008,” Planning Minister Julio de Vido told a press conference. Leer más »

FORMOSA (From our correspondent). – Directive of the Lloyds Bank and an investor from the United States visited this province recently, interested in acquiring lands to produce jatropha, a pluriannual crop that doesn’t impose the necessity of recurrent replanting.Â

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The biofuel grows in the neighboring country due to the expansion of the internal market.

SAN PABLO (Reuters). – The international demand of ethanol would register an increase in the next months, but the Brazilian market will continue being the main production attractiveness in Brazil, the major world-wide biofuel exporter, an analyst said.

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