Two UK ethanol plants announced; will supply 33 percent of English ethanol

In England, Future Capital announced plans to raise $275 million for construction of two wheat ethanol plant in Grimsby and Teeside, with a planned capacity of 95 Mgy, or one-third of projected English ethanol demand.

The UK government has established a Renewable Transport Fuel Obligation (RTFO), which takes effect in April 2008. The Obligation mandates that, by 2010, five per cent of all fuel sold in the UK must be from renewable sources. A number of ethanol projects have been announced as a result of the RFO, including a project in Wilton and a British Sugar/BP joint venture near Hull.

In England, a jatropha-based biodiesel plant has been proposed for the Rookery Business Park in Besthorpe (Nottinghamshire), and an application for a land use variance has been submitted with local authorities. The developers did not disclose plant capacity, but said they would obtain jatropha oil from suppliers in India and Africa, and supply biodiesel to the market in the 90-95p range, a 15 percent savings over current petroleum diesel prices.

This was the first reported plant development since December, when Goes on Green announced that it had entered the first permitting stage for a 51 Mgy biodiesel plant in North Shields. The $61.4 million Goes On Green project have an initial capacity of 8 Mgy and increase to full capacity in 36 months.

The Government recently revised its costs and carbon savings from the proposed implementation of the RTFO. The cost has risen 87% to $760 per ton of carbon emission saved based on an estimated carbon savings of 700,000-800,000 tonnes. The RTFO imposes a 2.5 percent biofuel mandate in 2008, increasing to 5 percent in 2010.