AlgaEnergy, part-owned by Spain’s Iberdrola and Repsol , is in talks with potential partners to set up a plant in Mexico to supply the American markets with biomass made from algae.
Chief executive Augusto Rodriguez-Villa will travel to Mexico next week to meet executives from local companies to discuss a joint venture to build a 1million liter biomass plant running on microalgae, he said in an interview.
“We want to gain a foothold in Mexico to expand in Latin America and the U.S. from there,” Rodriguez-Villa said.
“The joint venture will get our knowledge and our future partner will finance setting up the first production plant.”
The International Energy Agency, a policy adviser for industrialized nations, estimates biofuels must supply about 27% of road fuels worldwide by 2050, up from 3 percent in 2012, to reduce crude-oil dependence and carbon emissions.
Biofuels from edible crops like corn have been blamed for food shortages, spurring interest in algae, which does not take up agricultural land and can be made using wastewater.
AlgaEnergy will next month begin building a 7million euro (£5.8 million) plant in Arcos de la Frontera in southern Spain. The facility will start with a capacity of 350,000 liters and ramp up to a million liters with an annual output of 100 metric tons of biomass by year-end, Rodriguez-Villa said.
Flu gases from a 1.6-gigawatt Iberdrola combined-cycle power plant will feed the algae cultures at the plant. Repsol agreed to buy the algal oil output to turn it into second-generation biodiesel.