The European Investment Bank board has approved an E8m ($10.7m) loan to the Omnicane ethanol distillery at La Baraque in the south of the island. The loan represents about a quarter of the project’s estimated E23m total cost. The plant, which began operations in April 2014, has a total production capacity of 25m litres/yr of hydrous ethanol, using 90,000 tonnes of molasses, with half sourced from La Baraque’s estate and the rest from other sugar factories in the island. The complex is designed to produce 72,000 tonnes of liquid fertilisers from the vinasse waste generated by the production of ethanol with the addition of urea and phosphoric acid.
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