Vivergo Fuels: Progress Report on Commercial Scale Ethanol Plant in United Kingdom

Vivergo Fuels, a joint venture created by BP, British Sugar and DuPont announced progress in its efforts to build and operate a world-scale wheat-to-bioethanol plant in the United Kingdom.

The company has signed exclusive contracts with grain marketing business Frontier to procure wheat for its feedstock, and with animal feeds supplier KW Trident to market the resulting co-products. At the peak of construction, over 400 people will be working at the site followed by about 70 full-time employees once fully operational.

Once up and running in 2010, the biorefinery will produce up to 420 million liters of bioethanol a year, and will require about one million tons of wheat. This will be supplied under contract by U.K. growers. Currently the U.K. exports around 2.8 million tons of wheat – enough to produce 1.2 billion liters of bioethanol, which would meet 5 percent of the country’s petroleum demand.

Established in 2007, Vivergo Fuels brings together the complementary skills of three leading companies:

* BP’s fuels technology expertise and access to major fuel markets
* British Sugar’s experience in the agricultural supply chain
* DuPont’s biotechnology and bio-manufacturing capabilities