British motorists will soon be putting wheat into their tanks in the form of bioethanol fuel produced in Somerset.

Permission has been granted in the county for the construction of a bioethanol plant producing clean fuel from grain. South Somerset planners voted unanimously in favour of the project.

The plant will be built by Green Spirit Fuels at Henstridge, and will use some 340,000 tonnes of wheat to produce 130 million litres of bioethanol, enough for 1 billion miles of motoring a year.

Bi-products from the process include animal feed and carbon dioxide (CO2) that can be bottled for industrial use.

Somerset County Council has been working towards a green fuel policy for some while now, and last year trialled a bioethanol powered car.

The Ford Focus Flexi-Fuel Vehicle (FFV), the first manufactured bioethanol-powered car in Europe, made its debut on Somerset's roads last year to mark the groundbreaking partnership between Somerset County Council, Ford Motor Company, Wessex Water, Avon and Somerset Constabulary and Wessex Grain, to bring 40 all new Focus FFVs to the County early this year.

Currently Wessex Grain sends wheat to Spain to have it converted into bioethanol. Wessex Grain buys grain from farmers throughout the South West of England, including Dorset, Somerset, Cornwall, Devon, Hampshire and Wiltshire. It also buys grain from Gloucestershire, Northamptonshire, and Sussex.

The project is expected to progress quickly with the establishment of 5 bioethanol fuel pumps in the County and deployment of the flexible fuelled vehicles in the project partner fleets by April 2006.

The biofuelled cars are also capable of running on any mixture of ethanol and petrol in the fuel tank so can refuel with petrol if outside the range of a bioethanol pump. Following the introduction the Focus FFV will be available to other car users in the locality.

The plant will contribute towards a government requirement for all road fuel to contain 5% bio-fuel by 2010.