Increasingly more Polish companies are interested in liquid biofuels. PKN Orlen is the largest of those concerns and with this in mind it has made a bid in the privatisation of Polmos Wrocław. Today the government is to consider the biofuel issue.
Polmos Wrocław produces bioethanol, the fuel that Henry Ford thought his cars would eventually be using. Nearly one hundred years later he may well be right.
Grażyna Magdziak, MD of privatisation advisors BAA, said that several offers from potential investors were received. Two will be chosen and due dilligence will comence.
Polmos Wrocław is also the owner of the Krakus brand of vodkas. It produces around 18m - 20m litres of spirits per year of which eight to nine million could be fuel components. As a means of comparision, the largest producer of bioethanol in Poland, Leszno based Akwawit, is producing around forty million litres of bioethanol annually and production capacity could be four times higher if required.
Once this company complies with EU regulations on biofuels there could be a lot of cash in the business. The agricultural ministry believes that 600,000 tons of biofuel components will be used in 2006. The value of this could be around EUR140m. By 2010 six percent of fuels used could be made of biocomponents with this figure increasing to 14 percent by 2020.