Sierra Leone’s ethanol plant close to operation

Addax BioEnergy's plant, which processes ethanol from sugarcane and is the first of its kind in Africa, is due to start production soon.

Sierra Leone's president, Ernest Bai Koroma visited the Addax BioEnergy plant on Saturday in the run up to its start date.

The plant will produce about 85,000m3 of ethanol and approximately 100,000 MWh of renewable power per annum.

The sugarcane estate is approximately 10,000 hectares (ha) and will be powered by the biomass plant, fuelled with sugarcane fibre residues.

The factory and related infrastructure, fields developed for rice farming and ecological conservation areas cover another 4,300 ha, bringing the effective project area to around 14,300 ha.

Construction of the distillery and power plant began in 2011 with production becoming fully operational this year.