Domestic Fuel

Governor George E. Pataki announced nearly $6 million in State funding to assist Western New York Energy in the development of the first state-of-the-art dry mill ethanol plant in New York State. The $87.4 million facility is to be located on 144 acres in the Town of Shelby, Orleans County.

BioEnergy International, a privately held, biotechnology company headquartered in Norwell, Massachusetts, announced that it has commenced site work on its first biorefinery, a 108 million gallon per year ethanol plant located on land leased from the Lake Providence Port Commission in East Carroll Parish, Louisiana.

VeraSun Energy broke ground on its third ethanol biorefinery in Charles City, Iowa over the weekend. When complete, the biorefinery will produce 110 million gallons of ethanol and 353,000 tons of distillers dried grains (DDGs) annually from 39 million bushels of corn.

According to an AP story in the Grand Forks Herald, a proposed $350 million ethanol plant and coal-fired steam plant is getting a boost from a local economic development group. The Jamestown-Stutsman Development Corp. is investing $6 million in the effort – a $4 million grant over 3 1/2 years and the purchase of $2 million in Spiritwood Energy LLC stock.
Both the Jamestown City Council and Stutsman County Commission approved the money in special meetings this week. The 100 million gallon a year ethanol plant and steam power plant is planned in Spiritwood, about 10 miles east of Jamestown.

Central States Enterprises, Inc. and GROWMARK, Inc. have joined forces to build a new corn ethanol facility in Blackford County, Indiana. According to a news release, the facility will consume approximately 41 million bushels of corn annually, producing 100 to 110 million gallons of ethanol and 376 thousand tons of distillers dried grains.
Delta-T Corporation of Williamsburg, Va., along with their Alliance Partners of TE Ibberson of Minneapolis, Minn. and TIC – The Industrial Company of Steamboat Springs, Col., have been appointed design-build contractors. Construction is scheduled to begin this summer.

The Aurora Cooperative and Aventine Renewable Energy Holdings, Inc., plan to develop a new ethanol plant near Aurora, Neb, according to a press release. This 220 million gallon per year plant, with the first phase being 100 million, will be constructed on a 135-acre site adjacent to the property of the Nebraska Energy, LLC ethanol plant. “In addition to the ethanol project, we are also pleased to announce the first ag-bio multiplex in North America,” said George Hohwieler, President and CEO of the Aurora Cooperative. The 135-acre site named Aurora West will also include a state-of-the-art grain handling facility, a fertilizer complex, and a double loop railroad system to accommodate grain, fertilizer, ethanol, and DDG shipments accessing the Burlington Northern-Santa Fe (BNSF) mainline railroad.

Ethanol plants are popping up like prarie dogs in Nebraska.

Coming up April 24th, Mid America Agri Products/Horizon will host a ground breaking ceremony for a plant in Cambridge. According to this Grainnet report, the first phase of the two-phase project will cost $70 million and produce 44 million gallons a year. It’s the second Nebraska project for Mid America Bio-Energy & Commodities of North Platte, the other is in Madrid, due to start up in December 2006.

Also this week, Phelps County Ethanol, a subsidiary of Midwest Ethanol Producers, Inc. announced plans to build an 100 million gallon/year ethanol plant near Holdrege, according to this news release. MEPI is also currently in the permitting stages for a 100 MMGY Plant in O’Neill.

Thanks to our friend Erick Erickson of Holdrege for passing along those stories.

I think this is a real pretty logo. Nice website these E3 Biofuels folks have too – not too flashy, but very classy. Their slogan is “Merging Technologies for Earth, Energy and Environment.” The company made some domestic fuel news this week with the public unveiling of the complex it is building near Mead, NE. The E3 Biofuels Complex is being called a cutting-edge closed-loop system that combines ethanol production, livestock production, and waste management. The system incorporates a dairy or feedlot, an ethanol production process, and an anaerobic digester into a self-sustaining, closed-loop system. The manure from the livestock is handled by an on-site waste management facility and turned into biogas. This biogas powers the ethanol production process, eliminating fossil fuel costs. Wet distillers grain – a co-product of the ethanol production process – is fed to the livestock, completing the loop. Similar concept to the Panda Energy plant planned for Southwest Kansas, which DomesticFuel reported on September 19. The American Coalition for Ethanol has a story about the complex on its website, and the E3 Biofuels website features a story from the OmahaWorld Herald.

Ground was broken Monday for a new biodiesel plant in Missouri, the largest plant yet in the state. The Mid-America Biofuels plant in Mexico, MO is the result of a partnership between Biofuels, LLC; Archer Daniels Midland (ADM); Ray-Carroll County Grain Growers, Inc.; MFA Oil Co.; and GROWMARK, Inc., and will have an annual production capacity of 30 million gallons.

“Biodiesel demand is growing fast, and we believe Missouri is the right place to produce biodiesel and fill that demand,” said Warren Stemme, a Missouri farmer in St. Charles County and president of Mid-America Biofuels, LLC. “Additionally, we have an unbeatable team in place with each member providing resources and experience which is sure to make Mid-America Biofuels a huge success.” Stemme is also in the Missouri Soybean Association, as well as a director of NBB.

The central Missouri majority farmer-owned plant includes nearly 400 farmers.

Read the full release from the National Biodiesel Board website.

It’s good to see that Texas is going public with E85. They just opened their first public pump this past week. The picture is of Curtis Donaldson, president of CleanFUEL USA, and David Gibson, executive director of the Corn Producers Association of Texas, who helped celebrate the opening of Texas’ first public E85 pump in San Antonio.

The Corn Producers Association of Texas (CPAT) celebrated the opening of the state’s first public E85 pump in San Antonio on Wednesday. The Bexar County Fleet Maintenance Building is selling the blend of 85 percent ethanol and 15 percent gasoline. On Wednesday, the station promoted the fuel by selling it for 85 cents for a couple hours. After the promotion, the station posted a price of $2.35 a gallon, which is about 20 cents less than regular unleaded in the San Antonio area.

“It’s good to finally have a site open to the public in Texas,” said David Gibson, executive director of the Corn Producers Association of Texas. “Corn was touted really strongly there. This is good for farmers, and we’re looking forward to opening more stations. In fact, there’s a site under review in Austin right now.”

Maybe we should just start a daily feature to announce the new ethanol plant “annoucement of the day.” It seems like we hear about new plants on a regular basis now. Like today’s announcement from The Andersons, Inc.

The Andersons, Inc. today announced the selection of Clymers, Indiana as the site for its proposed new corn ethanol plant with the support and assistance of the state of Indiana through the Indiana Economic Development Corporation (IEDC) and Cass County. “Creation of this plant is good news for Hoosiers and a great application of our Clean Indiana Energy policy,” said Governor Daniels.

This new facility will be capitalized by approximately $140 million in capital investment and create 40-50 new production jobs, in addition to roughly 250 construction positions. With a planned annual capacity of 110 million gallons of ethanol and production of 350,000 tons of distillers dried grains for feed, the plant would be the largest and most modern east of the Mississippi River. The plant would process 40 million bushels of corn each year-primarily sourced from Cass and surrounding counties-significantly benefiting area farmers and agribusinesses.

This may be a little different but, hey, it’s an alternative to what we think of as traditional fuel. How about using “waste wood” as a biomass fuel source?

Agriculture Under Secretary for Rural Development Thomas Dorr today announced a $16 million loan guarantee to help finance construction of an electrical generating plant in rural Arizona that will use wildfire-damaged timber along with waste wood and paper fiber from a nearby paper mill as a fuel source. The announcement marks the first time that USDA has made a loan guarantee through its Rural Development Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency program.

Rural Development funds will guarantee a $16 million loan to Snowflake White Mountain Power, LLC of Snowflake, Arizona. The company will build a 20-megawatt biomass electrical generating plant 17 miles from the community. The $23 million generating plant will use wildfire-damaged timber from the 450,000 acre Rodeo-Chediski fire, along with waste from the nearby Abitibi Paper Mill as a fuel source. The timber that was damaged by wildfire will be sold to the company under contracts with the U.S. Forest Service as part of its Healthy Forest Initiative.

Now here’s a company that’s really into the domestic fuel business. Why not combine biodiesel and ethanol? No good reason obviously.

NewGen Technologies, Inc. announced today that in addition to the acquisition of three terminals for distribution of ReFuel America biofuels in the Southeast United States, the company will also launch its own ReFuel America branded and proprietary E-Diesel early next year.

NewGen’s E-Diesel is a blend of standard diesel fuel and ethanol that utilizes proprietary NewGen technology to maintain blend stability and increase certain fuel properties. City buses, stationary equipment and other vehicles currently running on standard diesel fuel account for a large portion of the world’s air pollution. The optimum blend of ethanol, diesel and other NewGen innovations can replace straight diesel fuel in these engines. Some American cities have already converted their bus fleets to E-Diesel on a test basis.

Broin Companies is a celebrating the groundbreaking of the 8th ethanol plant they’ve designed and built in South Dakota tomorrow. This one is for Prairie Ethanol, LLC. The groundbreaking will be conducted after a program in Lechter, SD that includes speeches by U.S. Senators Tim Johnson and John Thune. Then the official ceremony will take place at the plant’s construction site near Loomis, SD.

Prairie Ethanol will be the eighth ethanol plant the Broin Companies of Sioux Falls, SD have built in the state of South Dakota and the 24th plant built since its inception. Annually, Prairie Ethanol will produce 60 million gallons of ethanol by consuming over 21 million bushels of corn from the regional area. The plant will employ approximately 40 people, most from the local area. Prairie Ethanol will also help improve the local corn basis while providing an environmentally friendly fuel and premium Dakota Gold Enhanced Nutrition Distillers Products™ for regional, national and international markets.

You’ve really got to sit up and take notice when a company like Archer Daniels Midland decides to invest so heavily in a project like the one they announced yesterday. This is a very successful company and they see that the future growth of the ethanol business is a positive one. I say let’s keep turning that corn into ethanol. I’d much rather put that in my car than something imported from another country!!

Archer Daniels Midland Company announced plans to expand ethanol capacity by 500 million gallons through the construction of two new dry corn milling facilities. The facilities will be located adjacent to the Company’s existing ethanol plants. “We are pleased to leverage our extensive experience in the ethanol market to help meet increased demands for ethanol,” stated Edward A. Harjehausen, ADM Senior Vice President. “Ethanol demand is growing rapidly as the world’s energy requirements are being met increasingly from renewable agricultural sources such as corn.” Construction, expected to be complete in early 2008, is dependent on final engineering and permit approval.

Texas-based Panda Energy is planning to build a 100-million-gallon fuel ethanol plant in southwest Kansas. What’s even better than the production of domestically-produced fuel is the fact that the plant will use up a problem by-product of cattle feeding in the area!

The plant will use a billion pounds of cattle manure each year as a renewable fuel to power the plant’s operations. The $120 million facility will refine US corn and milo into fuel ethanol that will be blended with gasoline to produce a clean, low cost fuel for America’s cars and trucks. The ethanol produced in this plant will replace the need to import 100 million gallons of gasoline each year.

These projects will use a total of three billion pounds of cattle manure a year as a renewable fuel. The manure is gasified and converted into a clean bio-gas used to power the plant. By utilizing bio-gas produced from manure instead of natural gas, each facility will save the equivalent of 1,000 barrels of oil per day.

The company says the plant will produce enough ethanol to replace 100 millions gallons of gas that would have to be imported each year.