Hungary bioethanol projects stay on drawing board

18 March 2008 17:08  [Source: ICIS news]

PRAGUE (ICIS news)--Only two from dozens of bioethanol distillery projects in Hungary have been realised, the Hungarian Bioethanol Association (HBA) said on Tuesday.

 

A spokesman for HBA said that some 30-40 projects had been tabled in the past four years but that, apart from the two that are now up and running and another four that have got as far as the licensing stage, there had been little progress in establishing them as operational entities.

 

“High feedstock prices have occurred partly because of a severe drought that slashed the country’s maize crop last year and then came the state’s failure to follow through on securing incentives,” said the spokesman.

 

“Of all the projects that were announced, it is difficult to say how many of them will eventually see the light of day. Possibly very few,” he added.

 

The spokesman said HBA is aware that Sweden's Sekab, which had planned to invest €380m ($600.8m) in four bioethanol plants in Hungary, has shelved its plans for now.

 

The two operational distilleries have an overall capacity of 200m litres/year of bioethanol.

 

Bookmark Simon Robinson's Big Biofuels Blog for some independent thinking on biofuels 

By: Will Conroy
+44 20 8652 3214

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