DONG Energy and a number of partners are going to build a second-generation bioethanol plant

As of 14 September 2007 DONG Energy has together with the partners Statoil, Genencor (Danisco’s enzyme division) and AgBioEnergy applied for public co-financing from the Danish Energy Technological Development and Demonstration Programme (EUDP) for construction of a demonstration plant for second-generation bioethanol production.

“DONG Energy wants to be active in the development of new eco-friendly energy technologies. The second-generation bioethanol production we want to build in Kalundborg provides interesting perspectives for export of Danish technology. I look forward to cooperating with the three partners. I believe that this partnership will be fruitful not only to the companies involved but also to the strong development environments in Denmark within bioethanol,” says Anders Eldrup, CEO, DONG Energy.

The plant must be in operation prior to the UN Climate Summit in November 2009 to demonstrate a sustainable utilisation of agricultural residues for the production of bioethanol, feed and solid biofuel.

The plant will be connected to the DONG Energy power plant in Kalundborg and when in operation it will be able to process four tonnes of straw an hour, which corresponds to 30,000 tonnes of straw a year.

This will result in an annual production of 4,500 tonnes of bioethanol, 13,500 tonnes of feed for the agriculture and 10,500 tonnes of solid biofuel, which may replace coal for power and heat production.

The technology can also be used on other residual biomass products providing opportunity for increase of the bioethanol production on existing plants in eg USA and Brazil without neglecting the consideration to the production of foodstuffs.