14th December 2006

LONDON (Reuters) - Florida-based Losonoco is looking to build a bioethanol plant in northeast England to come on line in mid-2008, the company's director of business development Stephen Bean said.

Bean told Reuters the company was aiming to get the plant on stream to coincide with the start of Britain's Renewable Transport Fuel Obligation (RTFO).

Britain has set an initial target to secure 2.5 percent of all its motor fuel from renewable sources in 2008, rising to 5.0 percent by 2010.

Losonoco is one of several firms to announce plans for bioethanol or biodiesel plants in Britain recently.

Its first UK plant, expected to be in Teesside, would produce bioethanol from wheat.
The plant would have a capacity of 30 million gallons a year and process about 360,000 tonnes of wheat.

Bean said the company was also looking to build a second bioethanol plant in Britain, possibly near Ellesmere Port in northwest England.

He said that would use second generation, ligno-cellulosis technology that would enable a wide range of crops or waste materials to be broken down to produce biofuels.

"Our longer-term strategy is the ligno-cellulosis route," Bean said.
The company does not yet have an offtake agreement with an oil company and, unlike some rivals, has yet to forge a partnership with a grain company to secure feedstock.

Bean said the company was still working on financing.

Losonoco was initially based in London but moved its base to Florida in May.
The company is planning to set up its first bioethanol plant near Tampa, Florida, with the facility expected to come on line either in late 2007 or 2008, he said.
The Florida facility is an ethanol plant that was built in the 1980s but later mothballed