COFCO builds ethanol plant in Guangxi

China National Cereals Oil & Foodstuffs Corp. (COFCO) is building a 400,000-ton-per-year ethanol plant based on cassava in the Guangxi autonomous region. The plant will be one of the world’s biggest fuel ethanol plants using cassava, with a total investment of 1.46 billion yuan (US$187.21 million), said Yue Guojun, general manager of COFCO’s bio-chemical and bio-energy division. It will take 12 to 14 months to build the first of two production lines in Guangxi. COFCO will begin construction of a second line in late 2007 or early 2008. “As a new business, we will attach great importance to the development of bio-energy in the future,” Ning Gaoning, president of COFCO, said. COFCO is also in talks to buy into a 440,000-ton-per-year ethanol plant in East China’s Anhui Province. It is also awaiting government approval to build a 300,000-ton-per-year ethanol plant in North China’s Hebei Province and another plant in Northeast China’s Liaoning Province of a similar size. The Hebei plant will convert corn and sweet potatoes into biofuel, while the Liaoning plant will use only sweet potatoes. The firm already owns an ethanol plant in Northeast China’s Heilongjiang Province and has a 20% stake in another plant in Jilin Province, both with total annual capacity of 800,000 tons using corn as feedstock. (January 3, 2007)