Recently, with the approval by Brazil’s National Agency of Petroleum, Natural Gas and Biofuels, the Chinese agribusiness giant COFCO International has started building a pipeline to transport biodiesel produced by its local factory in the state of Mato Grosso. This is the first time for Brazilian government to approve a factory to construct and operate a biodiesel pipeline.

The approximately 3-km pipeline, which will be built in the city of Rondonópolis, can transport biodiesel produced by COFCO International’s soybean oil extraction plant to several fuel distributors located 3 km away. The construction of the pipeline with a flow rate of 245 tons per hour will take 5 months.

According to Marcos Dalla Rosa, Senior Manager of the Biodiesel Division of COFCO International in Brazil, once the pipeline is put into operation, the transport efficiency will be 60 times higher than the present truck transport, eliminating 1200 truck trips annually.

“Once the new pipeline is put into use, the logistic cost of COFCO International and its clients will be greatly reduced. At the same time, the fuel transport will be faster, safer and more environment-friendly,” Mr. Marcos Dalla Rosa noted.

At present, COFCO International’s oil extraction plant in Rondonópolis can process 1.4 million tons of soybean every year to mainly produce soybean oil, soybean meal and biofuel with biodiesel accounting for 42% of its output. Recently, the plant again passed a new round of RenovaBio program certification administered by Brazil’s Mining and Energy Ministry.

Under the RenovaBio program, the Brazilian government issues certain amount of CBio (carbon emission quota) that can be traded and sold at Brazil’s stock exchange so as to encourage businesses to replace fossil fuel with biofuel. In 2020, COFCO International Brazil’s five plants, including the one in Rondonópolis, altogether received 295,000 CBios.