The Spanish company Abengoa has entered into a contract with the U.S. Department of Energy to develop a biomass ethanol plant in Hogoton, Kansas. The $38 million contract will allow the building of the biomass fed plant to be built along side the grain fed 92 million gallon plant Abengoa Bioenergia is building at that location. Total investment in the two plants will be $300 million.
The plant is projected to be able to process 700 tons of biomass per day, producing 9 million gallons of ethanol per year. The ethanol industry is researching other sources of feed stock to replace or supplement the corn that is the primary feedstock in the U.S. Under another Department of Energy contract, Abengoa has built a pilot plant in York, Nebraska that has successfully produced ethanol from wood pulp. The announcement of this plant was covered previously on this site here.
Abengoa is making regular appearances on this site with its progressive approaches to renewable energy. It was first reviewed here. This Spanish company is the 5th largest ethanol producer in the U.S and leading producer in Europe. They are also in the ethanol business in Brazil. In Spain the company has and is producing leading edge solar and biodiesel production facilities.
Unfortunately, Abengoa stock trades primarily on the Madrid stock exchange. There are unsponsored ADRs in the pink sheets, but I am hoping they sponsor and ADR soon.
Source: Rueters
One Comment
Tim — See my previous post on this topic (Abengoa building plant in Kansas): http://ecotality.com/life/2007/09/11/first-commercial-scale-cellulosic-ethanol-plant-is-coming-to-us/