The first-of-its-kind biodiesel refinery plant is to go operational in December 2018 in Adama Industrial Zone, with an annual biodiesel production of over 70 million liters. The biodiesel refinery will make use of 1.4 million hectares of reforestation, of the drought resistant biofuel plant Jatropha, to provide renewable biofuel resource. This is one of the ten similar plants API plants to build by 2025, which are expected to generate a total of 730 million liters of biofuel annually.
API, African Power Initiative, has set out to launch this commercial biodiesel refinery after erecting a successful pilot refinery plant. Marcos Bitew, CEO of API, said that their team is “incredibly excited and gratified for the world to see our vision of sustainable energy production coming to fruition in Ethiopia.”