Biofuel Projects in France and Germany Go with Renewable Fuels Flow

---

Researched by Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas). Wheat and corn based bioethanol plant projects motivated by players in the agri-industry are underway in France and Germany. In France, five corn cooperatives in the Aquitaine region have formed a company OCEOL, holding a 36% interest in AB Bioenergy France, to partner Spain’s Abengoa Bioenergia SA (64%) (St Louis, Seville) in a project to produce 200,000 tons per annum (tpa) of bioethanol.

AB Bioenergy France is building the $215 million project on a section of the depleting Lacq gas field which was sold to the project by Total (PARIS:FP) (France). The development, construction and exploitation investment are being financed by a loan arranged by Baywerische Hypo-und Vereinsbank, a German based member of Italy’s Unicredit banking group.

The project has received all the required permitting and is scheduled to come into operation in October 2008. It will receive benefits from the reduction of the internal tax on oil products which is granted to all biofuel production in France.

In Germany, Cargill (Minneapolis, Minnesota) plans to expand its wheat processing operations in Barby where it has been processing wheat into starches and sweeteners for food, pharmaceutical, board and paper customers since the plant opened in 1994. The new project will develop a production capacity of one million hectoliters of bioethanol per annum (about 90,000 tons). Construction will start in the second half of 2007 and production should begin by the second quarter of 2009.

Frank van Lierde, head of Cargill’s Sweetener Division in Europe said,” By integrating the bioethanol plant into a starch processing facility, we will gain significant flexibility and will be able to maximize bioethanol production through optimal use of our feedstock. We will also benefit from economies of scale and leverage existing synergies at the location.

Barby is on the River Elbe in a fertile farming region with competitive raw material sources. It has a position to supply refineries throughout Germany and in central and northern Europe. The bioethanol project will give farmers in the region a new market for local wheat.

Germany now has compulsory rates for incorporation of biofuels into petrol and diesel and renewable fuel blends are sold at gas stations across the EU. Cargill has been investing in biofuels in Germany and Europe since 2000 and sees the industry as an extension of its expertise in trading, origination, processing and transport of raw materials and finished products.

Industrial Info Resources (IIR) provides marketing communication services ranging from industrial database solutions to market forecasting, custom analytics, and specialty promotions that support high-level image campaigns.