Junior Sammy has been chosen as the contractor to build an ethanol plant for local company EthylChem and Denham Capital Management.

The plant is to be constructed at the Pointe-a-Pierre refinery of the State-owned oil company, Petrotrin. The plant will produce 100,000,000 gallons-a-year of fuel grade ethanol.

Denham is a majority shareholder in EthylChem and will provide the funding for the construction of the facility.

The plant is expected to be completed in the second quarter of 2009 and the ethanol should meet all specifications for use in US gasoline.

The project is expected to generate about 100 construction jobs and employ 16-18 full time workers once completed. Petrotrin will provide certain operating and logistical infrastructure for the project.

“In addition to the construction funding, Denham will provide additional capital and commercial support for the engineering and permitting in preparation for expanding the capacity of the facility by up to 200,000,000 gallons per year,” it said in a press release.

“EthylChem expects to be fully operational prior to the 2009 driving season in the United States.”

BY RADHICA SOOKRAJ
A US$20 million ethanol dehydration plant is now under construction at Pointe-a-Pierre and is expected to bring substantial foreign exchange to T&T.

So said managing director of EthylChem Ltd Patrick Johnson in an interview. Johnson said the plant is being constructed on the western end of the Pointe-a-Pierre refinery in south Trinidad.

“Construction has already started and we expect to have the plant fully on stream by April next year,” Johnson said. He added that EthylChem will hire all of its labour force from T&T. He said 135 people will be employed during the construction phase while 18 people will be directly employed during operations.

Johnson said Petrotrin will be paid for use of its infrastructure. The plant is expected to process ethanol which is being imported from Brazil.

He explained that Petrotrin will eventually own the plant once EthylChem’s 15-year lease had ended. Asked whether the plant will then be obsolete, White said, “No.” He said the plant will have a lifespan between 30 to 45 years.

White also said that all of the processed ethanol will be shipped to the United States. Representative of EthylChem’s investment bankers Travis Windholz said because of the stringent environmental laws in the United States, they have not built a plant in the United States for over 30 years.

White explained that they decided to build the ethanol dehydration system plant in Pointe-a-Pierre because it was economically profitable to construct the plant in Trinidad. He said if construction had taken place in Brazil, EthylChem would have been forced to pay additional duties.

Johnson said EthylChem would bring between US$150 million to US$200 million into the local economy each year once production begins.