MEXICO CITY, Jun 10, 2010 -- Xinhua



Latin America's biggest biodigester will be built in the northern Mexican state of Coahuila to produce electricity and fuel ethanol, as part of a nationwide bid to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, Mexican broadcasters reported Wednesday.

"The project is coming to Madero and everything is ready for the purchase of the land where the plant will be built," said Cristobal Marrufo Lopez, mayor of Francisco I Madero, a town in Coahuila.

Budgeted at 280 million dollars, the 78-hectare plant will be built by a consortium of Scottish and Colombian companies, he told Mexican media.

Biodigesters take organic waste, including faeces, and rot it in sealed conditions to produce methane, a gas that can be burned to produce electricity.

The Madero biodigester, to be located in the rural section of the town, will produce sorghum and maize, some of which will be processed to produce diesel fuel.

Marrufo said the project is expected to provide hundreds of jobs for the town in the construction phase and the daily running.

Mexico has many small programs producing energy from manure, mostly in pig farms. The programs are sponsored by the Agriculture and Environment Ministries to reduce pollution from the farms.

The administration of Mexican President Felipe Calderon has ordered all regions to implement greenhouse gas emissions plans to reduce emissions by 50 million tons a day by the end of his presidency.

Calderon's commitment to green issues has been recognized by the United Nations, which awarded Mexico the honor to host UN ministerial-level climate summit in Cancun this November.

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