Israel biofuel industry gains recognition at Rotterdam Event
The world is thirsty for alternatives to the highly polluting fossil fuels, and Israel has a lot of innovations to offer in this arena. This year, the Israeli government supported a large delegation to the World Biofuels Markets conference in Rotterdam, the Netherlands, the most important bio-fuel event in Europe. The conference hosted the world’s leading players in biofuel, aviation, transportation and finance. The Israeli Pavilion raised a lot of interest at the show.
Israel’s water industry is known as a world leader, and the country’s alternative energy market is also gaining recognition, but Israel’s bio-fuel industry is as of yet still less known internationally. This however, is beginning to change, as Israeli companies have much to offer in this arena.
The World Biofuels Markets conference, which took place this March 13-15 for the 7th time in Rotterdam, is a professional event which brings together the main players in the biofuel arena from Europe and the world over, with about 2000 participants, managers and decision-makers in leading fuel companies like BP, Acciona and Shell, as well as huge aviation companies Boeing, Lufthansa, Airbus, British Airways and others, together with large players in the alternative fuel market.
Supported by Israel NewTech, together with the Israel Export Institute and alternative fuels administration of the Israeli Prime Minister’s Office, nine companies from Israel arrived at the event from the agricultural, biomass, biodiesel and algae arenas. The participating companies included: Kaiima, The Agricultural Research Center (Volcani), Migal, Netafim, Tahal, Univerve, Transbiodiesel, Virdia and Dr. Yaron Yehoshua, the founder of the biotechnology of algae department at Bar Ilan University.
According to Arik Rath, head of business development for Energy and Environment in the
Israeli Pavilion at World Biofuels Markets
Israel Export Institute , the goals of the Ministry of Industry, Trade and Labor and of the Prime Minister’s Office are to support Israeli technologies in international projects, and to position Israel as one of the advanced technology “labs” in the arena of alternative fuels. The support of these governmental institutions was instrumental in bringing the Israeli companies to the conference, and they played an active role in creating business contacts and setting up meetings for Israeli companies with the leading biofuel players in the world at the event.
During the conference, the Israeli booth drew a lot of attention, and three Israeli companies also presented in different panels: Univerve, Kaiima and HCL. Dozens of meetings took place, and the companies reported follow-up meetings and plans for cooperation are already in place.
According to Yaron Schrotter, Israel’s Economic Attaché in Holland, the decision to invest in a large Israeli booth at this year’s event paid off. The participating Israeli companies reported that the joint national stand opened a lot of doors to key international players in the biofuel arena.
And this is just the tip of the iceberg, as there are more exciting Israeli companies active and offering innovative technologies in the alternative fuel sphere, including: Arrow Ecology, DST, Green City, Madei Taas, MME, Proterec, Seambiotic, and Trans Bio-diesel.
