VILNIUS - A new 120-million-lita (35 million euro) bioethanol plant is being planned for the district of Panevezys in northern Lithuania.
Leonas Jankauskas, director of Leo ir Ko, a business management firm that is handling the setting-up of the bioethanol plant, said that, under the optimistic scenario, the new facility could be built in late 2007.
According to Panevezio Balsas, a regional paper, the new plant will be located in an area close to Panevezys' industrial zone. Jankauskas hinted that some 10 hectares of land had been purchased for the project. According to preliminary estimates, the new facility would process some 130,000 tons of grain and produce around 40,000 tons of bioethanol annually.
A bioethanol plant is in operation in Silute, in western Lithuania, and another one is under construction in Pasvalys, in the northern part of the country.
It is believed that with an increase in the use of bioethanol, an environmentally friendly fuel additive made from grain, the new facility could benefit future grain producers in the region.
"There are many such plants in Europe, particularly in Germany. They even have facilities that manufacture special equipment for bioethanol plants," the director of Leo ir Ko said.
He added that the new plant, if built, would create about 150 new jobs. A group of former employees of the bankrupt TV-tube plant Ekranas in Panevezys have already been hired to do the organizing work.
