Northwestern China's Largest Biodiesel Production Base Built in Shaanxi

A biodiesel production base was recently completed and put into production in Tongchuan City in northwestern China's Shaanxi Province. The production base will produce 800,000 tons of biodiesel in 2007. In 2008, annual production will reach full capacity of 100,000 tons.

This biodiesel production base is invested by Xi'an Baorun Industrial Development Company Limited. Baorun's business is in the wholesale of gasoline, kerosene and diesel. The company has refined-oil storage facilities in Xi'an, Baoji, Ningxia and Tongchuan. It also has its own railway tracks for loading and transportation. In recent years, Baorun has begun to engage in the research, development and manufacturing of bio-energy. The Northwest Sci-Tech University of Agriculture and Forestry provided the core technology using pericarpium zanthoxyli oil as the project's major material.

Biodiesel is a clean and renewable energy. The fruit of pericarpium zanthoxyli, rhizoma coptidis, shinyleaf yellowhorn, physic nut and other oil plants can be made into environmentally friendly liquid fuel. About 0.46 million acres of pericarpium zanthoxyli have been planted in central Shaanxi where the base is located. Development plans call for adding a 1.2 million-acre pericarpium zanthoxyli field soon. The local forestry department estimates that the pericarpium zanthoxyli generate more than $53 million of income to local pericarpium zanthoxyli farmers.

It is also reported that the production base has signed long-term purchase agreements with the forestry bureaus of Yongshou, Liuba, Ningqiang and Danfeng counties to secure the project's raw material supply.