* Vivergo Fuels' biorefinery one of biggest in Europe
* Capacity to meet third of UK bioethanol demand
LONDON, July 8 (Reuters) - One of Europe's largestbiorefineries, capable of meeting up to a third of Britain'sbioethanol demand, opened officially near Hull in easternEngland on Monday.
The 350 million pound ($520.9 million) biorefinery has beendeveloped by Vivergo Fuels, part-owned by BP which has a45 percent stake. Associated British Foods also owns 45percent of the venture and DuPont 10 percent.
The plant is designed to turn 1.1 million tonnes of animalfeed wheat each year into 420 million litres of bioethanol and500,000 tonnes of protein-rich animal feed for the UK market, BPsaid in a statement.
The facility was opened by Vince Cable, secretary of statefor business, innovation and skills.
Biorefining breaks down the starch in wheat to sugars, whichare then fermented into alcohol through a process similar tothat used in a whisky distillery.
The bioethanol produced can be blended with petrol for useas a lower-carbon transport fuel.
Vivergo hopes to source its feed wheat primarily from farmsin Yorkshire and Lincolnshire.
The bioethanol produced at the Vivergo plant will save over50 percent of the greenhouse gas emissions that come fromstandard petrol, BP said, equivalent to the emissions of morethan 180,000 British cars a year.
The European Union has set a target that 10 percent of allfuels used in transportation should come from renewable sourcesby 2020.
The use of biofuels is under scrutiny, however, because someare thought to displace food production into new areas, forcingforest clearance, releasing large amounts of greenhouse gasesinto the atmosphere and worsening climate change.
Another big biorefinery in Britain is operated by Ensus,which is owned by U.S. private equity funds the Carlyle Groupand Riverstone. It is located in northeast England and has asimilar capacity to the Vivergo facility.