UK new generation biofuel plant set for 2009 start

HAMBURG, Feb 12 (Reuters) - U.S. group Dupont (DD.N) and British oil giant BP Plc (BP.L) are on schedule to start pilot operations at a plant to test production of new generation biofuels in 2009, a Dupont executive said on Tuesday.

Dupont and BP are building the plant near Hull in north England to produce biobutanol, a higher grade of bioethanol.

Demonstration production is scheduled to start in 2009, David Anton, venture manager of Dupont Biofuels, said on the sidelines of a conference on biofuels staged by German commodity analysts F.O. Licht.

"We believe that the new technology will be completely ready to go in 2010 and commercial production will start after that," he said.

"We are on schedule and we are confident," he said. "Things are progressing well."

About 20,000 litres annually will initially be produced.

Biobutanol performs more like unleaded gasoline and has higher energy content than traditional biofuels, he said.

Biobutanol can be blended in higher concentrations without the need to modify vehicles. Biobutanol does not separate in water, allowing it be transported using existing fuel pipeline infrastructure.

"We think that biobutanol will have a large role to play in moving biofuels into more general use," he said.

Production will eventually be aimed at the market for blending with conventional gasoline.

Markets will be the UK itself along with continental Europe.

Feedstock will be a mixture include corn (maize), sugar cane and wheat. Aim is to have a range of raw materials enabling a cost-effective feedstock supply.

Dupont also has a separate bioethanol project at Hull in cooperation with B.P. and the UK's British Sugar using wheat as feedstock.

(Reporting by Michael Hogan; Editing by Michael Roddy)