Major Taiwan firms will set up bioethanol plants

Major Taiwan firms Vedan Enterprise Corp., Taiwan Sugar Corporation, and Taiwan Cellular Ethanol Corp. will set up bioethanol plants in Taiwan. These firms aim to tap business opportunities generated by the new regulation stipulating that gasoline sold in Taiwan by 2011 will have to contain 3% bioethanol. Taiwan Cellular will invest NT$3 billion (US$93.45 million) to set up two plants in Changhua Coastal Industrial Zone and Pingtung, each with a production capacity of 43,000 kiloliters per year (klpy), with the proposed plant in Changhua Coastal Industrial Zone to begin construction by the end of this year. The state-run Taiwan Sugar will also budget NT$3 billion (US$93.45 million) to set up a bioethanol facility in its Nanchin sugar plant in Chaiyi County, southern Taiwan, with the proposed bioethanol plant to turn sugarcane into 100,000 to 120,000 klpy of bioethanol. Vedan said it would cooperate with the state-run CPC Corporation to set up a joint bioethanol plant at its Shalu plant in Taichung County, central Taiwan, which will begin mass production in September 2009 with a capacity reaching 60,000 klpy. With annual consumption of 10 million kiloliters of gasoline in Taiwan, demand for automotive bioethanol is expected to reach 300,000 klpy after the regulation becomes effective in 2011. (August 29, 2008)