DUPLEX STAINLESS STEEL FERMENTATION TANKS REDUCE FINANCIAL RISK
France was late in
planning the expansion,
and it was not until
November 2005, that the
industry minister, Francois
Loos, together with
Dominique Bussereau,minister for agriculture
discussed a doubling of
production with the biofuel
companies. As a start towards
meeting the target, an
additional quota of 380,000
tonnes of ethanol was
allocated amongst 11
producers, and at the end of
February 2006, the Tereos
Group, one of the largest
producers in Europe, was
awarded the licence for an
additional 110,000 tonnes
production.
In 2004, Tereos acquired
ownership of Société
d’éthanol de Synthèse (SODES), a producer of
synthetic alcohol, located on
the Seine Basin, at Lillebonne
(Seine-Maritime) in
Normandy. Armed with this
new production allocation, the
decision was made to
construct a wheat-processing
ethanol factory on the SODES
site, where a combination of
the Group's existing
production, plus the
government allocation of 2.5
million hectolitres, will give
the plant an annual output of
over three million hectolitres
of ethanol, and a by-product
of 300,000 tonnes of
distillers' grain.
Plans for the
plant allow production to
grow to 5.5 million hectolitres
of ethanol some time after
2010. About 840,000 tonnes of
wheat will be imported to the
plant each year, and the
process of conversion from
grain to ethanol is by
fermentation, followed by
distillation. The wheat is
milled in order to release its
starch, and the resulting
powder diluted in water to
adjust the level of sugar in
the mash. Cooking the mash
with enzymes or mineral acid
dissolves the water-soluble
starches, converting them to
sugar.
