B4

THE CANADIAN PRESS

Stumble Upon

del.icio.us

Digg

Facebook

Print

Email

Speak Up

TRENTON, N.S. - A company hoping to turn so-called energy beets into ethanol has toured the idle TrentonWorks plant in central Nova Scotia for a third time.

Ron Coles, spokesman for Atlantec BioEnergy, says the company has officially expressed interest in acquiring a section of the plant.

"We need water access, so we've kind of identified the section we're most interest in," Coles said. "For our purposes, the sooner we can get the site the better."

But Coles said there are no guarantees the Nova Scotia-based company will be approved to purchase a portion of the former railcar plant.

"It's a waiting game right now," Coles said. "We're looking at a couple of other sites, but they're not as attractive as Trenton."

The company requires water and rail access, along with about 25 acres of commercially zoned property - all of which is available at TrentonWorks.

None of the other sites they're looking at fits all of those requirements, he said. "We have no other requirements other than the beets. We even use the water that's in the beets in our production," he said.

"There's no waste stream from this, and there's the capacity to make some of the equipment we need right in Trenton."

Traditionally, corn is used to make ethanol.

But Coles says it's much more efficient to use energy beets because they contain more energy than corn.

As well, energy beets contain elevated levels of sugar content, even higher than sugar beets.

Later this month, the company is planning a field day session for anyone interested in growing energy beets for the project.

Local growers in Scotsburn and River John have already planted a crop.

Currently, there are about 250 hectares planted in the province. The plant would require about 2,500 hectares for initial production.