Russian government will back the construction of 30 new ethanol plants to produce biofuels from timber waste

Russian government will back the construction of 30 new ethanol plants
to produce biofuels from timber waste, Prime Minister Viktor Zubkov
has announced.
A government programme to develop biofuel production will begin this
year. Apart from the construction of new ethanol plants, the programme
will also upgrade existing facilities.
Russia will eventually produce 2 million tonnes of ethanol a year if
the programme is successful. Some of the plants are likely to produce
ethanol from timber waste, such as sawdust, Alexei Ablayev, director
of the National Biofuel Association, says. The Russian plants could
also make ethanol from such crops as wheat.
Researchers are close to developing a technology to make fuel out of
timber waste that will be as efficient as the current conversion of
crops into fuel.
Approximately 30 Russian plants which made ethanol from non-crop raw
materials became bankrupt with the collapse of the Soviet Union due to
the plants' technology making the fuel too expensive.
Plans to divert some of the country's crop harvests to make fuel
should not send bread prices soaring because there is room to grow
larger harvests, Ablayev says. In October Agriculture Minister Alexei
Gordeyev stated that Russia has 20 million hectares of unused arable
lands.
If ethanol production does take off in Russia, it will target the
export market to begin with, Ablayev says. The government charges an
excise duty of at least 26 rubles (?0.71) to sell 1 litre of ethanol.