Finland's Neste Oil Corp. and Austrian oil and gas company OMV have agreed to jointly build a large-scale plant to produce next-generation biodiesel fuel, Neste Oil said in a statement on Monday.

According to a memorandum of understanding signed by the two companies, the plant will be located at OMV's Schwechat refinery in Austria, and will begin to produce biodiesel fuel at the end of 2008.

The plant will use Neste's proprietary NExBTL technology, capable of producing high-quality diesel fuel from a variety of renewable raw materials, such as vegetable oil and animal fats. It will produce 200,000 tons of NExBTL-biodiesel a year.

Neste is currently building the first NExBTL facility at its Porvoo refinery. With a capacity to produce 170,000 tons of NExBTL-biodiesel a year, it is due to come on stream in the summer of 2007.

Source: Xinhua