Abengoa shuts down plant in France

Abengoa Bioenergy has stopped operations at its bioethanol plant in Lacq, France.

An Abengoa spokeswoman gave a statement to Biofuels International. However, the firm did not disclose what the incident was or the cause of the incident.

The statement said: “An incident occurred in one of the fermenters during a scheduled shutdown of the plant for maintenance. 

“There were no injuries to personnel as a result of this incident. Neither was there any resulting pollution outside the zone. The area was secured with the help of the fire department from Induslacq.

“Everything is being done to be able to resume operations safely at the plant as soon as possible.

“Abengoa Bionenergy France is going to open an investigation to find out the exact cause of what has happened and adopt specific and appropriate measures for the security of equipment and personnel.”

Abengoa Bioenergy France has been operating since 2008, producing bioethanol from corn by means of fermentation procedures.

Restart

Elsewhere, the firm confirmed that two Nebraska, US-based, ethanol plants in Ravenna and York have restarted production.

As of 20 May, the plants were operating at or near full production as the company continues to negotiate with alternative natural gas suppliers, “in an effort to save substantial amounts on the natural gas consumed at the newly restarted plants,” according to a recent court filing.

The two plants shut down in late 2015 due to a lack of money to operate them. In February, several creditors owed millions of dollars tried to force Abengoa Bioenergy into an involuntary Chapter 7 bankruptcy, which would have required it to liquidate its assets. A judge instead converted that petition to a Chapter 11 filing, which allows the company time to reorganize its finances.