New biomass power plant to be built in Hungary

The foundation stone laying ceremony for Hungrana Ltd.’s latest biomass power plant took place in Szabadegyháza, southwest of Budapest, this Friday. Hungrana’s existing biomass power plant burns 60,000 tons of hay and 12-15,000 tons of sunflower husk pellets annually.

“Europe’s largest maize
processing company is capable of producing higher added value products thanks
to continuous development and technological modernization. This is in harmony
with the government’s and the Ministry’s vision that the Hungarian food sector
should produce healthy, safe, natural, GMO-free and competitive products”, the Minister
of Agriculture, Sándor Fazekas said at the foundation stone laying ceremony for
Hungrana Ltd.’s latest biomass power plant in Szabadegyháza, southwest of Budapest.

At the professional conference
held in conjunction with the ceremony, the Minister stressed that the company
plans for the long term, as proven by the developments it realizes year after
year. “In addition to development, protecting the environment is also important
to us, and the company uses only Hungarian, GMO-free raw materials, produced
bioethanol for motor vehicles and is also expanding the biomass boiler it
inaugurated in 2012”, he added.

According to a statement by
the Ministry of Agriculture, Hungrana’s existing biomass power plant burns 60,000
tons of hay and 12-15,000 tons of sunflower husk pellets annually, which
provides two-thirds of its own steam and heat requirements. The latest HUF 1.5 bn (EUR
48 mn) investment will enable the company to produce 100% of its own steam and heat
requirements.

Mr. Fazekas highlighted the
fact that in 1990, Hungrana only had the capacity to process 400 tons of maize,
but by today has increased this capacity to 3500 tons. The company’s market
position is continuously improving and they are currently Europe’s largest
maize processing company, while they have maintained a determining role in the
Hungary food industry for over a hundred years. The Minister also spoke about
the fact that - in harmony with the government’s vision - the company produced
competitive and high quality food ingredients that are processed at a higher
level of added value. Increasing the level of processing requires developments,
which the Government supports using EU funding within the framework of Economic
Development and Innovation Operative Program (GINOP) and Food Industry
Operative Program (ÉLIP) tenders, he said.