Canada’s SunOpta wins contract from Chinese ethanol firm

21 January 2010 18:12  [Source: ICIS news]

TORONTO (ICIS news)--SunOpta BioProcess has won a contract to supply a major ethanol producer in China with its proprietary fibre preparation and pretreatment equipment to produce cellulosic ethanol, the Canadian biofuels engineering firm said on Thursday.

SunOpta said it expected to generate revenues of about Canadian dollar (C$) 6.5m ($6.2m) from the contract.

The company would not disclose capacities or the identity of its client.

However, it described the client firm a one of the largest operators in the corn biochemical processing and new energy sectors in China. The client is partly owned by one of the largest petrochemical companies in China, it added.

SunOpta’s equipment would be installed at a planned cellulosic ethanol demonstration plant scheduled for completion in late 2010, it said.

That plant would be located next to an existing starch-to-ethanol facility and would utilise local corn stover as feedstock, SunOpta said, but did not disclose the city or province.

The development of cellulosic ethanol had taken a high profile in China as that country's government was discouraging further development of corn-to-ethanol plants as a result of environmental and food supply issues, SunOpta said.

SunOpta BioProcess is part of Brampton, Ontario-based SunOpta Inc, a diversified food, industrial materials and renewable energy firm.

($1 = C$1.05)

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