Big River Resources Begins Fuel Ethanol Plant Construction in Midwest

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Researched by Industrialinfo.com (Industrial Information Resources, Incorporated; Houston, Texas). Farmer cooperative owned Big River Resources Coop (Monmouth, Illinois) has broken ground on a new fuel ethanol plant in West Burlington, Iowa.

Area agricultural investors and corn growers have been working since early 2001 to put together funding, a strong business plan, and the right technology for the $50+ million project to move forward. The cooperative members themselves were able to raise about $13 million in funding.

The corn based dry mill plant will utilize ICM's (Colwich, Kansas) ethanol production technology and the plant will be constructed on a design-build format utilizing Fagen Incorporated (Granite Falls, Minnesota) and HES Construction (Mount Pleasant, Iowa) as the project's construction manager.

The 40 million gallon per year fuel grade ethanol plant will process about 15 million bushels per year of corn grown in Eastern Iowa and Western Illinois. The plant will also produce about 135,000 tons per year of dried distillers grains and 240 million pounds of carbon dioxide annually.

Big River Resources is projecting it will take about 14 to 16 months to complete the project and an estimated start-up date is projected for January of 2004.

The site near West Burlington, Iowa in Des Moines County was selected to take advantage of rail, truck, and river transportation systems crucial for the success of an ethanol plant. The site is approximately 7 miles from the Mississippi River, 75 miles from Interstate 80, and has rail access on the property.