TIANJIN, China, Sept 8 (Reuters) - PetroChina plans to add 1.1 million tonnes of biofuels production capacity and import 470,000 tonnes of those fuels by 2015, a company official said on Thursday, as the oil firm aims to tap more alternative energy sources.

Of the planned production capacity, fuel ethanol will be 933,000 tonnes a year and biodiesel will be 165,000 tonnes a year, Fu Xingguo, deputy chief engineer of PetroChina's Petrochemical Research Institute, said at an industry conference.

The planned biofuel imports, which are likely from countries such as Brazil, will be blended with regular fuels and sold to southern Chinese provinces, he said.

Fu said some aviation biofuel the company produced will be used in a test flight next month. He did not give more details.

China has around 1.52 million tonnes of fuel ethanol capacity which mainly use grains as feedstocks, according to Fu.

"We have to look for non-grain feedstocks, and those are in short supplies," he said.

PetroChina currently has only small biofuel production capacity. 

Source:reuters