30 January 2014, Abeokuta – A new ultra modern ethanol manufacturing plant will be commissioned today at Igbesa, Ogun State.
Among those expected to grace the occasion are past president, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo and the host governor, Senator Ibikunle Amosun, captains of industries and other eminent personalities in the country
The plant is built by aAtlantic Distilleries Ltd (AADL), a subsidiary of the Lexcel Group, to produce ethanol, a major component in the production of spirit, using cassava.
In a statement, Tuesday, Production Manager of AADL, Mr. Sowemimo Michael, said that the factory has 10 million liters per annum installed capacity of ethanol; requiring approximately 240 tons of cassava per day at an average of 10 tons per hour.
“After the weighing, it will be transported to the rasper machine where it will go through milling, liquefaction, and fermentation process. In each of these segments, state-of-the-art machines and equipments have been installed to ensure the plant operates at optimal capacity.
“this is certainly the beginning of a new dawn in the wine and spirit industry in Nigeria, and we are setting the pace in line with our company’s objective to remain the number one in the nation’s distillery sector,” he said.
He added that the new plant has further reinforced the company’s objective to remain the market leader, not withstanding competition in the distillery sector as no other distilleries have distillation plants in Nigeria, not to talk of extracting ethanol from cassava. “I will give kudos to the management team because this is another initiative which will make us to be in total control of the quality of our products and other necessary materials and relevant parameters of the ethanol.
Our product will be quite different from any other distilleries company because as far as Nigeria is concerned today we are the only group of companies laying claims to the production of beverages, wine and spirit with the aid of a distillation plant,” he said.
*Vanguard
