Green light for Manildra Group

The New South Wales (NSW) Planning Department has approved a A$200 million (US$129.62 million) expansion of an ethanol production plant at Bomaderry, near Nowra on the state’s south coast. The expansion of the Shoalhaven Starches plant, owned by the Manildra Group, will increase its production to 300 million liters a year. The amount is nearly triple what it currently produces, and the increase will be done in stages after on-going independent audits of the plant’s odor controls. Manildra Group Chairman Dick Honan says most of the additional ethanol produced will go to meet the state government’s ethanol petrol mandate. NSW officials agreed in 2008 to lift the total amount of ethanol contained in unleaded petrol from two to six percent by 2010 and to 10% by 2011. (February 6, 2009)