CropEnergies to restart Wilton, UK plant for trial run

German bioethanol producer CropEnergies (ETR:CE2) on Tuesday said it would start up its plant in Wilton, UK for a trial run following a pause in production since February 2015.

The trial run will start in July 2016 at the latest. While the plant was offline, the firm carried out a number of modifications to improve its reliability and energy efficiency and these will now need to be fully tested in a trial run.

In a statement announcing its annual dividend, CropEnergies also called on EU countries to continue to increase their renewable blending requirements in order to meet renewable targets and protect local investments and jobs. It added that, in the UK, an early increase of the Renewable Transport Fuels Obligation (RTFO) and the introduction of higher ethanol blends like E10 are crucial for the continued operation of the Wilton facility.

The plant has an annual capacity of 400,000 cu m (14.1 million cu ft) of bioethanol and 350,000 tonnes of distillers dried grains with solubles (DDGS), according to the company's website.

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