Sekab to Spend $436 Million to Build Ethanol Plants in Hungary

5 July 2006

Budapest Business Journal. Svensk Etanolkemi AB (Sekab), a Swedish ethanol company, will spend €343 million (US$436 million) to build four ethanol plants in Hungary to meet increasing demand for biofuels.

Sekab’s Hungarian unit, BKZ Beruházásfejlesztési Zrt, will produce 600 million liters (159 million gallons US) of ethanol a year once the four plants are completed in 2008, BKZ Chairman László Zsemberi said at press conference in Budapest today.

European and US companies have been building ethanol factories in Hungary as the European Union supports biofuel producers through incentives and rising crude oil prices promote the use of cheaper fuels.

In Sweden, Sekab manufactures ethanol by fermenting a sugar solution obtained by processing paper pulp with atmospheric oxygen. The Hungarian plants will use crops as feedstock, consuming an estimated 1.5 million tons of corn and other crops per year, according to Zsemberi.