BP, DuPont, AB Sugar open GBP-350m bioethanol plant

Jul 9, 2013 - British oil giant BP (LSE:BP) and partners AB Sugar and DuPont (NYSE:DD) on Monday celebrated the opening of their GBP-350-million (USD 521m/EUR 405m) Vivergo bioethanol plant in Hull, eastern England.

The facility will process 1.1 million tonnes of feed-grade wheat annually to produce 420 million litres (111 million gallons) of bioethanol at full capacity and 500,000 tonnes of animal feed. According to the developer’s calculations, the fuel output would be enough to meet a third of UK’s bioethanol needs.

Vivergo Fuels, the joint venture of BP, DuPont and AB Sugar that is in charge of the bioethanol facility, said in a statement on Monday that the plant has 80 full-time employees. It was built under a brownfield re-development project at a site within the Saltend Chemicals Park near Hull.

In a separate statement on Tuesday, Indian process and project engineering firm Praj Industries (BOM:522205) said it had supplied the licence for the technology at the Vivergo plant. It also provided basic engineering and certain equipment for the core process block which includes liquefaction, fermentation, distillation, multi effect evaporation and molecular sieve dehydration.

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