COFCO’s demo plant in Guangxi passes mark

A 200,000-ton-per-year (tpy) cassava-based fuel ethanol project owned by China’s COFCO Ltd. passed technical appraisal on April 8. The demonstration plant located at Hepu Industrial Park in Beihai, Guangxi province, was built by COFCO Guangxi Bio-Energy Co. Ltd., as part of COFCO’s effort to develop a non-grain-based fuel ethanol business, in line with a Chinese government directive. It is the first operating fuel ethanol plant in China which uses non-grain feedstock. The company has applied for 34 national level invention patents for the project, among which nine have been granted. The appraisal committee concluded that the project’s overall technical level has attained an advanced level internationally and recommended that the government accelerate the development of such projects. (April 26, 2009)