Ethanol factory hires agbusiness expert firm in sugar cane production
BRAWLEY—California Ethanol + Power (CE+P) has named international sugar and agribusiness consultant Booker Tate Ltd. to help guide sugarcane cultivation plans and ethanol production for Sugar Valley Energy. The approximately $650 Million 160-acre sugarcane ethanol refinery and bioenergy facility is planned near Brawley, according to a recent CE&P press release.
Based in Thame Oxfordshire, UK, Booker Tate are experts in the areas of sugarcane, farming, bioenergy, and ethanol refining, according to the release. They have provided management and technical leadership on more than 1,500 projects in 120 countries in the past 55 years, including in North, Central and South America, Europe, Middle East, India, Asia and Africa as well as in Australia and the South Pacific.
“As we proceed through the final financing phase of our project to our anticipated construction, CE+P is excited to partner with one of the world’s most preeminent experts on sugarcane and ethanol production,” said CE+P CEO Dave Rubenstein, in the release. “Sugar Valley Energy has an exceptionally strong team to deliver the project and its numerous regional economic and community benefits.”
The release said Booker Tate will supply the Sugar Valley Energy project with management and engineering personnel to work in concert with the project’s EPC contractor during the construction and operational startup phases. Functional roles will include civil, electrical, mechanical and instrument engineers as well as agricultural managers and agronomists to review all aspects of local sugarcane production.
“We have been working closely with CE+P and the Sugar Valley Energy team from the original investigation of the project concept to the current financial phase. We are looking forward to assisting with the construction and being part of the operations once the project is commissioned’ said Robert Hodgson, Project Director for Booker Tate, in the report. ‘We are proud to be associated with such an important renewable energy project and are fully committed to its success.”
“We will integrate and apply our scientific and commercial knowledge of renewable resources to create maximum value for CE+P and the Imperial Valley community in which it operates,” Hodgson said in the release.
The team has planted 100 acres of sugarcane to date and is developing schedules for planting an estimated 48,000 acres within the Imperial Valley, per the report. The project is in discussions with area farmers who will contract with the Sugar Valley Energy project to grow sugarcane feedstock for the plant.
“Imperial Valley’s growers are among the most sophisticated in the world when it comes to the region’s superior water resources and know-how to produce quality crops, which are exported and consumed internationally,” said Steve Benson, Chief Agricultural Officer for CE+P in the release. “We welcome the added expertise of Booker Tate as we prepare to scale up our sugarcane and energy product production.”
The completed Sugar Valley Energy campus will support an estimated 200 permanent new jobs on site and in the Imperial County community, as well as hundreds of agriculture-related jobs associated with cultivating sugarcane, according to the report. Construction of the facility alone is estimated to support more than 9,000 jobs in various trades. The project represents a $1 billion investment in the Imperial Valley region.
