Biofuels could provide stimulus for UK agriculture, says BP

In a few months’ time the first loads of wheat are due to start rolling through the gates of the Vivergo bioethanol plant in Hull. Ahead of its official opening, Paul Spackman questions BP head of biofuels Philip New (pictured below) about the plant and what the future holds.
Q. Given the proximity of Vivergo (pictured above) to a deep-water port, how committed are you to using UK-grown wheat, especially if the UK supply and demand balance gets tight when Ensus opens too?
“The fundamentals are that we’ve located Vivergo on the Humber because North Lincolnshire and East Yorkshire is such a marvellous place to grow the feedstocks we need. The plant is well suited to export the ethanol and can make best use of the existing infrastructure and labour available at the old BP petrochemicals site.
“One of the reasons we’re working with Frontier and ABF is to ensure the security of supply for feedstocks. I hope UK farmers will be encouraged to grow more wheat and also that the plants provide a stimulus for the wider agriculture industry to invest more in R&D to increase productivity. We are very conscious that we must demonstrate sustainability of production, so any feedstocks will have to qualify with the same Renewable Energy Directive criteria that UK crops meet.”
Q. Will these sustainability requirements be increased in the future and what will that mean for farmers?
“At the moment all we can do is comply with the RED, which sets a minimum standard of sustainability that is actually quite high already. I can imagine a situation where, if we get a progressive policy framework that rewards biofuel producers for the carbon savings achieved, we would be able to pay a premium for those feedstocks used. But we need that progressive regulation to create the market stimuli. Without it there’s no particular incentive to go beyond what we’re doing.”
Q. What will happen if there’s another wheat price spike – will bioethanol from wheat still stack up?
“It is impossible to say, as it really depends on what’s happening with the oil price at the time. There is some degree of natural hedging as the price of animal feed tends to move with the wheat price, but it’s the gap between wheat price and oil price that’s important.”
Q. How confident are you that Vivergo won’t run in to similar problems that Ensus suffered during the early commissioning?
“I’m quietly confident that we should avoid many of the issues that I understand bugged Ensus. The animal feed component is likely to be the highest risk area, but we’ve done a lot to mitigate risk. Having ABF/ British Sugar as a partner has allowed us to use their expertise, plus we’ve put in a drying and pelletisation facility.
Q. BP has invested a lot of money in developing advanced biofuels, so are “first generation” biofuels such as bioethanol from wheat just a stopgap until something better is developed?
“I’m not sure whether it’s a stopgap or not and there’s certainly no clear timeline for this. We have looked at making lignocellulosic ethanol from straw or energy grass elsewhere, so it’s not science fiction. Ultimately it would depend on whether farmers would want to get behind growing these feedstocks.
“We are already developing a biobutanol production facility at the Hull site with DuPont. Potentially we could retro fit various aspects of technology to the Vivergo plant to change the feedstocks used or alter the end product in the future.”
Q. So do you think biobutanol is the way forward?
“Butanol deals with some of the issues ethanol has as a fuel component. Like ethanol it has a great octane value, but butanol also has better vapour pressure properties, which means it’s easier to blend. It also separates from water so is easier to put down pipes and is less corrosive than ethanol, which means it can be used at higher inclusion rates without the need for engine modification.
“We’re hopeful that by 2014 or so, we should see the first commercial biobutanol production, probably in the US from corn starch.”
BP Biofuels
Since 2006, BP has announced investments of more than $2bn in biofuels business operations and research to develop the technologies, feedstocks and processes required to produce advanced biofuels.
Recently BP became the first international energy company to invest in the Brazilian sugarcane ethanol market, through its joint venture Tropical Bioenergia. It is also developing advanced biofuels, including lignocellulosic ethanol made from non-food feedstocks, and biobutanol.