Wednesday, April 3, 2013

Dear Europe: Making Ethanol From Wheat is Really Stupid

This is so idiotic, somebody has to be getting bought off.

September 2007
Making Ethanol from Wheat is Stupid
...Last May it was two of the most politically connected investors in the world, Carlyle Group* and Riverstone Holdings** building a wheat-to-ethanol plant in the same area, Teesside, that the poster boy of political connections, Enron, built their giant co-gen plant:
The UK biofuels industry is to invest £250m in a new ethanol production plant on Teesside.
Ensus, the concern building the facility, has secured the funds from private equity groups the Carlyle Group and Riverstone Holdings. There is also £150m of debt finance....
October 2007
Ensus Wheat Ethanol Plant Construction On Plan, Despite Odds
May 2011 
Duh: "'Pricey wheat' forces shutdown at British ethanol pioneer"
August 2012
Euro-nuts: Making Ethanol From Wheat Still Stupid
Increasing possibility' of Ensus plant reopening....
And the latest, from Agrimoney, April 2, 2013:
'Adverse market conditions' close Ensus again
Europe's biggest fully-operational wheat ethanol plant, the Ensus site in northern England, is to close again less than eight months after reopening, citing "adverse market conditions".
The plant, which has capacity for swallowing 100,000 tonnes of wheat a month, said that it was "having to temporarily pause production", without any idea yet of when operations might restart.
"At this stage, we don't know how long this pause will be, but we hope that market conditions can improve and are working towards the plant becoming operational again in the near future," the company said, in response to an inquiry from Agrimoney.com.
Peter Sopp, the Ensus chief executive, said that the group was "confident in the long term future of the business"....MORE