I had an extensive schedule during the week of the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting in my first experience here in the small city of Davos, Switzerland. This beautiful country in the center of Europe is also the home of Be8. We have a holding platform here to represent investments in advanced biofuels in Europe, and in March 2022 we acquired the MP Biodiesel factory located in Domdidier, in the Canton of Fribourg, which became Be8 Switzerland.
This Friday (19/01), we had the honor of receiving Minister Alexandre Silviera, of Mines and Energy, at our facilities, to visit the unit that produces second generation biodiesel from Used Cooking Oil (UCO, in its acronym in English). For the Minister, there is interest in learning about the operation because it supplies vehicles with up to 100% biofuel (B100).
“Today I experienced an experience that brings many lessons to us in Brazil. I accompanied the filling of a large truck with 100% biodiesel produced from used cooking oil here in Switzerland, next to the facilities of a Brazilian company and together with local authorities. It is a byproduct that now becomes sustainable fuel, which completely fuels a heavy transport vehicle. This reinforces all of Brazil’s potential in the field of biofuel production, with the diversity of our raw materials, which range from oilseeds from family farming, through grains, to waste from the protein industry. Our quality and cost competitiveness of raw materials encourages us to set the goal of exporting our biofuels produced in Brazil to European countries in the short term, generating jobs in Brazil. It’s good for the economy, the environment and health. It is Brazil leading the global energy transition.”
Alexandre Silveira, Minister of Mines and Energy
“Today I experienced an experience that brings many lessons to us in Brazil. I accompanied the filling of a large truck with 100% biodiesel produced from used cooking oil here in Switzerland, next to the facilities of a Brazilian company and together with local authorities. It is a byproduct that now becomes sustainable fuel, which completely fuels a heavy transport vehicle. This reinforces all of Brazil’s potential in the field of biofuel production, with the diversity of our raw materials, which range from oilseeds from family farming, through grains, to waste from the protein industry. Our quality and cost competitiveness of raw materials encourages us to set the goal of exporting our biofuels produced in Brazil to European countries in the short term, generating jobs in Brazil. It’s good for the economy, the environment and health. It is Brazil leading the global energy transition.”
Alexandre Silveira, Minister of Mines and Energy
Production also plays an important local role by offering an environmental solution to the issue of the appropriate disposal of Used Cooking Oil. Following the requirements of local legislation, the plant exclusively uses recycled canola oil and, to a lesser extent, sunflower oil collected from homes, restaurants and companies as raw materials. The main customers are gas station chains and companies that are committed to decarbonization, such as supermarket chains, retail companies and transport companies.
Be8 Switzerland is 100% automated and has a physical structure that occupies approximately 1,500m² of a total area of 3,236m². Unlike in Brazil, this unit in Switzerland supplies B100 to drivers’ vehicles directly from a pump next to production.
This is yet another (and Brazilian) example of the potential of biodiesel to fulfill its role in the energy transition in the short term.
Photo caption:
From left to right, Pietro Mendes, National Secretary of Petroleum, Natural Gas and Biofuels of the MME; Jerry Krattiger, Development Director, Friborg, Switzerland; Alexandre Silveira, Minister of Mines and Energy (MME); Pierre André Pache, Member of the Swiss National Biofuels Council; Erasmo Carlos Battistella, President of Be8; Alexandre Kessler, Minister Counselor at the Brazilian Embassy in Bern, Switzerland; Tulio Abi-Saber, Vice President of Finance at Be8; Carlos Roberto Ferreira Júnior, Director of Operations and Maintenance at Be8; and Luiz Guilherme Parga Cintra, Head of MME’s International Advisory