SAAEP welcomes announcement by biodiesel equipment manufacturer for first North American plant

January 17, 2007

- The Southern Alberta Alternative Energy Partnership is pleased to welcome BioKing biodiesel equipment manufacturer to Lethbridge. On January 9, the Netherlands-based company announced their decision to locate a new manufacturing facility in Lethbridge. The owners, Hans and Marco van de Ven are in Lethbridge this week to begin making arrangements for the plant.

“Biodiesel is a major growth area for us and we are aiming to become the world's leading biodiesel equipment manufacturer," says Mr. van de Ven. "Building a plant at Lethbridge will bring us one step further towards reaching our goal.”

Mr. van de Ven says the company is receiving numerous inquiries for their products from the United States and Canada and Lethbridge is a good choice due to its location close to the U.S. border and its transportation network. They selected Lethbridge because it seemed like a better choice than a larger city for employment purposes and Mr. van de Ven says the region is also proactively promoting alternative energy, which is an added benefit for their business.

John Kolk, chair of the SAAEP Advisory Committee, says, “This is a very welcome opportunity in building our regional message of alternative energy leadership. Not only does this give us a manufacturing anchor for alternative energy, BioKing will provide easy access to those interested in biodiesel production for local application or distribution.”

Company officials will be spending time in Lethbridge over the next few weeks locating a lease facility and finalizing arrangements to open this summer.

The BioKing news release is attached and corresponding information on the company and job opportunities with the company can be found at www.bioking.nl.

NOTE: Hans and Marco van de Ven of BioKing and representatives of the SAAEP will be available for media interviews at the Ramada Hotel (2375 Mayor Magrath Drive) between 2:00 and 3:00 p.m. on Wednesday, January 17.

For more information, contact:

Cheryl Dick
Economic Development Lethbridge
403 331 0022

BIOKING MEDIA RELEASE
For immediate release

‘S-GRAVENPOLDER, THE NETHERLANDS – January 9, 2007 – “BioKing” today announced that it has has decided to build a second high-quality biodiesel equipment manufacturing plant in Lethbridge, Canada... This BioKing plant, the first in Canada and overseas, will have a total of 50 employees working -- making it one of the largest of his kind in the country when operational. The plant will have the same production capacity as BioKing’s biodiesel equipment manufacturing plant in The Netherlands that produce an estimated 20 to 25 biodiesel processing units per week.

"Biodiesel is a major growth area for us, and we are aiming to become the world's leading biodiesel equipment manufacturer," says President and CEO Mr. van de Ven. "Building a second plant at Lethbridge will bring us one step further towards reaching our goal, but it will not be the only move that we'll be making. We intend building a number of such manufacturing plants in various countries, both alone and together with partners. When we talk about aiming to be the leader in the field, we're not just talking about production volumes, but also about being the technology leader as well. We aim to secure this position by investing heavily in R&D on biofuels to develop technologies that will enable us to further extend the range of raw materials that we can use. Ensuring the sustainability of the raw materials is also a top priority for us."

"The market of high-quality biodiesel processing equipment looks very promising," continues Mr. van de Ven, "We decided to invest in our first Dutch manufacturing plant purely with the export market to Eastern Europe in mind, but now it appears that we need a second biodiesel manufacturing plant to meet US and Canadian demand as well as growing demand in Asia. We will benefit significantly from being able to build the second biodiesel manufacturing plant alongside the first one operating in The Netherlands that we are expanding now."

BioKing is a manufacturing and marketing company specializing in advanced, farm-scale and large commercial containerized biodiesel manufacturing plants and their goal is to sell this equipment ad very attractive and competitive prices. BioKing headquarters is located in ‘s-Gravenpolder, The Netherlands. The company employs around 60 people. For further information, see www.bioking.nl

BioKing biodiesel equipment units are all developed in-house by BioKing and they all offer excellent performance, fully meeting all international standards set for biodiesel. Virtually all known vegetable oil and animal fat can be used as raw materials for the highly flexible processing units.

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