Construction Delays Push Back BioFuel Energy's Nebraska and Minnesota Ethanol Plant Start-Ups to May 2008

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Researched by Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas)--Investor-owned BioFuel Energy Incorporated (Denver, Colorado) is experiencing construction delays at its new fuel ethanol plants located in Wood River, Nebraska, and Fairmont, Minnesota. The two projects nearly mirror in cost, capacity and schedule. Both broke ground in November 2006, both have a nameplate capacity of 115 million gallons per year, and both plants are being built by the team of Delta-T Corporation and The Industrial Company (TIC) (Casper, Wyoming).

The infrastructure construction rail, wastewater system, gas and electricity hookups on both projects appear to be on schedule, but it's the guts core construction components of the plant that are delaying the schedule by some 90 days. TIC has been experiencing material delivery delays, and construction labor is tight.

Both plants are expecting to start commissioning in April and start grinding corn and producing batches of ethanol by May 2008.

The Pioneer Trail facility located in Wood River about 100 miles west of Lincoln, Nebraska, is being built next to Cargill's grain elevator site. The Buffalo Lake facility is about 150 miles southwest of Minneapolis, Minnesota, and is also situated near a Cargill elevator site.

Cargill is partnering in the projects and will supply the 88 million-plus bushels of corn annually needed to run the plants and will market both the ethanol and dried distillers grains produced at the plant.

Construction investments for both plants are estimated to be in the $300 million-plus range.

BioFuel Energy is also looking to develop another 115 million-gallon-per-year plant in Atchison, Kansas, and is expected to start construction by mid-2008.

Industrial Info's Ethanol Database provides a comprehensive outline of all current development activities in the emerging alternative fuels market. This database covers 147 ethanol plants in operation and 530 plants under development. It also covers 98 operational biodiesel plants and 245 biodiesel plants under development.

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