Abengoa seeks finance for US cellulosic ethanol

27 February 2008 18:47  [Source: ICIS news]

ORLANDO, Florida (ICIS news)--Biofuels producer Abengoa Bioenergy said on Wednesday it is still seeking financing for a hybrid plant that would include one of the first commercial streams of cellulosic ethanol.

Abengoa has fully staffed its project office and lined up contractors to build the plant, and hopes to close the financing by the end of this year, said Gerson Santos-Leon, executive vice president at Abengoa.

Speaking at the National Ethanol Conference in Orlando, Santos-Leon did not give any details of the kind of financing being sought, or the amount.

Investment experts had earlier told the conference that the current downturn in equity markets and in ethanol margins meant no new financing for greenfield projects was currently available.

The hybrid plant is planned for Hugoton in Kansas, placing it near feedlots with capacity for 2m cattle.

That would provide an outlet for the distiller's grains that would be a by-product from the ethanol plant, Santos-Leon said.

The hybrid plant would produce 15m gal/year of ethanol from the cellulosic process, using 245,000 tonnes/year of biomass.

The plant would also produce 88m gal/year from first-generation ethanol technology.

For more on ethanol visit ICIS chemical intelligence

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By: Stephen Burns
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