Now, what makes ‘Shell’ such a popular company? Maybe it’s simple name or even its simple logo, that all can associate with so easily. Being a marine lover for life, the name and its logo have some special significance for me. They give you a feeling that you are close to the white sands and the blue waves. Beyond all that maybe it is the fact that I have got accustomed to seeing the logo on a Ferrari driven by Michael Schumacher. Irrespective of what the reason is, the petrochemical giant always seems to be a very familiar brand even for those who do not really know much about it.
Now the company has decided to stake its claim in the biofuel market by making sure that substantiates its position in the production and research departments. The company is already producing over 3.5 billion liters of biofuel made from food crops in 2006, mainly in the U.S. and Brazil. The company intends to take this number up in the near future by actively involving and investing in the process of making the next generation of biofuel. For this very purpose the company has formed a joint venture with Hawaii startup HR BioPetroleum to build a pilot facility to grow marine algae and produce vegetable oil for conversion into biofuel. HR BioPetroleum is the biggest biofuel maker in the Hawaii Islands and is now actively involved in the research.
Shell is not the first company to be involved in the process. Many other oil giants such as Chevron are already actively involved in the process of producing second generation of biofuel. Shell has decided to concentrate all its attention and its available resources in the biofuel department by already disinvesting from other sectors such as photovoltaic cell research. It has already sold its Asian units and its European units to other companies so as to make sure that they can completely devote themselves towards developing second generation biofuel. Hope Shell does a good job in making sure that the second generation biofuel research is on the right track.
Via: CleanTech
