Mission Biofuels has appointed Julie Zhu as its chief operating officer for China.

Julie will be based in Beijing, and is responsible for the successful implementation of Mission Biofuels" initiatives in China. Julie was previously chief operating officer of Spanish biodiesel producer, Becco Biofuels" Chinese operations.

Julie Zhu says: "Mission Biofuels' business model of agronomy and refining/trading is perfectly suited to the Chinese biodiesel market.

" China has committed to replace 30% of its energy requirements with renewable energy by 2030 and biofuels is slated to account for a large percentage of that. A biodiesel standard has already been developed and we expect that it will be implemented in 2007. So, the timing is perfect," Julie Zhu says.

T. Venthan has been appointed Mission Biofuels executive eirector, China Operations. Venthan is currently Mission Biofuels' operations eirector and has been involved in the inception and implementation of Mission Biofuels' Indian feedstock business.

Julie Zhu and T. Venthan will join Mission Biofuels' finance director, Peter Williams as directors in Mission China .

Mission Biofuels is establishing a 100,000 tonnes per year biodiesel refinery at Kuantan Port , Malaysia . The company's focus will be the production of biodiesel from the abundant feedstock of crude palm oil and the sale of biodiesel into the European market.