Vega Biofuels Announces Plans for Shipping Bio-Coal to European Power Companies

The Company's plan is to begin shipping its product to customers in Europe during the first quarter of 2013.

"This is an aggressive strategy for our company," stated Michael K. Molen, Chairman/CEO of Vega Biofuels, Inc. "There is a tremendous demand for our product throughout Europe. European power companies have been mandated to cut carbon dioxide emissions by twenty percent by the year 2020. The obvious renewable energy solution is bio-coal. Europe's biomass resources are relatively small and unable to provide the necessary woody biomass to meet the mandate. North America is the prime, readily available source for certifiably sustainable and socially responsible bio-coal. Our goal is to have equipment installed and tested before the end of the year. This will allow us to start shipping product during the first part of 2013. The EU has the world's largest regional energy market and accounts for one-fifth of the world's energy use. If we can maximize the production capacity of our plant, we can quickly become one of the largest suppliers of bio-coal in Europe."

Torrefaction is a partial carbonization process that takes place at temperatures between 475 - 575º in a low temperature environment which makes the physical and energetic properties of the biomass much more comparable to traditional coal. The biomass is then compressed into briquettes to be sold to the end user. Torrefaction has the added benefit of reducing or eliminating undesirable volatiles, such as nitrous oxides and sulfur dioxides, and is considered carbon-neutral to the environment. Existing coal-fired power plants do not need to retrofit their existing plants to accommodate bio-coal. Bio-coal can be processed through the existing fossil coal handling chain.