News
19.09.2013
China to help build three biofuel plants in Ukraine
Ukraine and China in the next few days will sign the necessary documents to build in our country three factories for the production of bioethanol (ethanol, produced in processing of vegetable raw materials to be used as biofuel), Minister of Agriculture and Food Mykola Prysiazhniuk told reporters on Thursday.
This issue is already in the final stage; we will sign a contract just in a week, the minister said.
Prysiazhniuk explained that the Ukrainian side will purchase equipment at China for the plants. They will be build on the basis of old distilleries in Odesa, Kyiv regions and most likely in Ternopil.
The minister said that the construction of the three plants will enable to process an additional 1 million tons of corn per year. And this is a product with added value; though we do import substitution, reduce imports of petroleum products. Moreover, ethanol is an export-oriented products for Europe, the minister noted.
Chinas finance and technology assistance to produce biofuels in Ukraine began to be discussed at the beginning of last year. The idea was that distilleries, which today are unprofitable or use obsolete equipment, be converted into ethanol production. After that Ukraine was visited by the Chinese side, which made the assessment of the enterprises and prepared the technical documentation for the modernization.
A reminder that the Ukrainian authorities decided to produce biofuels in Ukraine. In 2013-2016 Ukraine introduces compulsory content of biological additives of vegetable origin in fuels from 7 percent to 10 percent, in diesel fuel - from 2 percent to 5 percent.
