Companies: ABF    BP.   

BP, the FTSE 100 oil and gas giant, says it is to build a £200 million green fuel plant on the outskirts of Hull as it seeks alternative forms of energy generation. Construction work on the new facility will begin early next year subject to regulatory nods.

The biofuels plant will be a joint venture between BP, Associated British Foods (ABF) and chemicals firm DuPont, and will make around 420 million litres of ethanol per year from 2009. Under Government rules, BP has to produce five per cent of its fuel from biofuels by 2010.

Wheat for the new plant will be sourced locally through an agreement between the joint venture and two ABF businesses, Frontier Agriculture and AB Agri. Intriguingly, BP and DuPont are set to build a demonstration plant on the same site capable of producing 20,000 litres of biobutanol, a more advanced biofuel, from a variety of feedstocks.