Royal Dutch Shell hopes to build a commercial plant producing biodiesel from algae in two years' time, following the launch yesterday of a joint venture to develop a research project in Hawaii.

The joint venture, with Hawaii-based HR Biopetroleum, will initially build a small research plant but hopes to move to a full-scale commercial plant of 20,000 hectares. Shell said it expected yields of about 60 tonnes of oil per hectare a year, meaning a full-scale plant would produce 1.2m tonnes of oil a year.