Biofuels Companies to Clean Up Chernobyl

German bioenergy expert PvT Capital GmbH and Irish bioethanol developer Greenfield Project Management Ltd have agreed to jointly develop Greenfield's proposed ethanol refineries in Belarus and to make this the first step in creating giant biomass refineries capable of producing a range of biofuels. PvT Capital's agreement with Greenfield also brings on board the Centre for Environmental Research (UFZ) of the world-renowned Helmholtz Association of Research Centres. The plan will transform Greenfield's bioethanol facilities in Belarus into multi-stage plants producing biodiesel, bioethanol, biogas and green electricity, with a relatively small amount of waste ash containing radioactive isotopes remaining to be stored in safe conditions. Repeated harvesting of biomass from the contaminated lands will help to remove the remaining radioactivity from the soil, allowing the lands back into full and safe use sooner than if they lie fallow. PvT Capital will take a shareholding in the Irish company, which has advanced its Belarus project to the starting gate in recent months. The biorefinery will be built under the aegis of Greenfield’s existing agreements with the government of Belarus and the state company Belbiopharm, a PPP (Public Private Partnership or Tri-P) in which the state retains a 20 per cent stake and Greenfield an 80 per cent stake. "We are coming into this project as both a shareholder and as technology partner and leader," said Dr. Chris Verbakel, chief operating officer of PvT Capital. "This partnership marks our entry into Belarus and represents another step in the implementation of our international expansion strategy. The dynamic Belarus economy offers exciting opportunities in agrofuels and remediation, and our advanced technologies in both fields will enhance and speed up the process of rehabilitating the contaminated Chernobyl lands." Mr. Michael Rietveld, chief executive of Greenfield, said: "Coming on the heels of our €65 million tranche of financing at the end of March, this agreement with PvT Capital gives us the means to complete the preconstruction phase of the Mozyr and Bobruisk projects." "The synergies between our two companies will fully enable us technologically speaking, and will take the projects to a new level, well beyond simple bioethanol facilities. Together, we will create the first ever full-spectrum biorefineries in the Commonwealth of Independent States." The management team of the privately-held German company has decades of experience in soil decontamination, redevelopment of industrial facilities, and fine chemicals, and more recently has added the development and supply of biodiesel plants to its ..2 billion worth of investment volume. In addition to Belarus, both Russia and Ukraine suffered serious contamination as a result of the Chernobyl nuclear explosion in April 1986. The Belarus biorefinery PPP will provide a platform to build out the decontamination project into Russia and other CIS countries. In December 2007, PvT Capital announced an agreement with the government of the Ukraine to develop biofuels facilities to aid in faster decontamination of 400,000 hectares of the country’s territory, and will pursue this project in addition to its commitment to the Belarus project. Prof. Frank-Dieter Kopinke and Prof. Holger Weiss of the German scientific research institute Helmholtz-UFZ, already a partner to PvT Capital in its Ukraine venture, will provide advice, supervision and certification that products from the contaminated lands are free of any contamination. Scientists from the Helmholtz Association will supervise tillage programmes and their impact on decontamination, the implementation and further development of innovative technologies for the conditioning of biomass and its transformation into safe fuels, the storage of decontaminated by-products, and working conditions during the revitalisation of the soil. Greenfield recently raised €65 million in investment capital, commissioned an energy supply systems study for its two Belarus plants, and will shortly commence environmental due diligence and Front End Engineering Design.

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