Publications
Partners
London - One of Europe's largest bio-refineries, capable of meeting up to a third of Britain's bio-ethanol demand, opened officially near Hull in eastern England on Monday.
The £350m ($520.9m) biorefinery has been developed by Vivergo Fuels, part-owned by BP which has a 45% stake. Associated British Foods also owns 45% of the venture and DuPont 10%.
The plant is designed to turn 1.1 million tonnes of animal feed wheat each year into 420 million litres of bioethanol and 500 000 tonnes of protein-rich animal feed for the UK market, BP said in a statement.
The facility was opened by Vince Cable, secretary of state for business, innovation and skills.
Bio-refining breaks down the starch in wheat to sugars, which are then fermented into alcohol through a process similar to that used in a whisky distillery.
The bio-ethanol produced can be blended with petrol for use as a lower-carbon transport fuel.
Vivergo hopes to source its feed wheat primarily from farms in Yorkshire and Lincolnshire.
The bio-ethanol produced at the Vivergo plant will save over 50% of the greenhouse gas emissions that come from standard petrol, BP said, equivalent to the emissions of more than 180 000 British cars a year.
The European Union has set a target that 10% of all fuels used in transportation should come from renewable sources by 2020.
The use of biofuels is under scrutiny, however, because some are thought to displace food production into new areas, forcing forest clearance, releasing large amounts of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere and worsening climate change.
Another big bio-refinery in Britain is operated by Ensus, which is owned by US private equity funds the Carlyle Group and Riverstone. It is located in northeast England and has a similar capacity to the Vivergo facility.
