Pornchai Rujiprapha, deputy permanent secretary, said yesterday that four or five plants would start selling formula B-100 biodiesel next year.

"We hope that next year, about 1.5 million litres of B-100 biodiesel will come onto the market daily. In 2008, the expansion of palm production should also help produce more B-100," he said. Now five plants with a combined capacity of 400,000 litres per day are using palm oil and used vegetable oil to produce biodiesel for mainly truck companies that want to cut their fuel bills.

"With that low output and below-standard biodiesel, we can't vigorously promote the use of such alternative fuel," he said. Also, due to high production costs, biodiesel is only 50 satang per litre cheaper than diesel. The cost would be brought down only when raw material supplies become sufficient.

Under the Agriculture Ministry's programme to encourage the planting of palm trees for alternative fuel production, plantations now cover 348,000 rai.

Chaiwat Choorit, senior executive vice president of PTT Plc, admitted that the company could not push for the use of biodiesel this year due to raw material shortages.

"Biodiesel from used vegetable oil is not good enough for commercial use. We have biodiesel at our stations, but it is purely for a trial," he said.

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