The Omega Green project site borders the Paraguay River, where a port is planned so barges can take biofuel south to Argentina for transshipment. (Photo courtesy of Heñoi)
Plans for the construction in Paraguay of a US$1 billion aviation-biofuel refinery is drawing questions about its possible environmental and social impacts. The Omega Green project, proposed by Brazil’s ECB Group and approved by the government in 2019, is being touted as the first advanced biofuel refinery in South America. Plans call for its construction at a site on the Paraguay River in Villeta, a city some 35 kilometers (22 miles) south of the Paraguayan capital of Asunción. Three million liters (792,000 gallons) of aviation and diesel biofuel would be made daily from inputs including slaughterhouse fats, oils from soybeans, canola pods and seeds of pongamia (Pongamia pinnata), an Asian tree ECB plans to introduce and plant at scale. Fuels would be loaded onto vessels at a duty-free river port planned for the project site and sent south by river for export from Argentina. ECB, which reports... [Log in to read more]
