The Spanish energy company Abengoa “will seek to sell its biofuel business as part of a debt restructuring plan to avoid bankruptcy,” reports Bloomberg. A plan submitted to the board of directors proposes the sale of “non-core assets,” including all of the company’s first-generation biofuel plants, to create a company about two-thirds of its current size. Abengoa’s ethanol plants in the United States produce 370 million gallons a year of biofuel, says DTN, noting that the company reportedly seeks $1 billion for Abengoa Bioenergy.
Abengoa also owns a cellulosic ethanol plant in Hugoton, Kansas. Rated at 25 million gallons a year, the Hugoton plant is one of three commercial-scale facilities in the country that convert grass or crop residue into fuel. Advanced biofuels have been slow to come into large-scale production due to production costs and the impact of the 2008-09 recession on fuel demand and investment capital.