Cornhusker Energy Plans April Kick-Off of Nebraska's Ninth Ethanol Plant

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Researched by Industrialinfo.com (Industrial Information Resources, Incorporated; Houston, Texas). After years of planning, putting together a business plan, acquiring funding, and identifying a suitable site location, cooperative owned Cornhusker Energy Lexington LLC (Greenwood, Nebraska) is preparing to begin construction activities on Nebraska's Ninth ethanol plant.

A formal groundbreaking was held last week for the project and the company has selected the ethanol development alliance of the Bio-Renewable Group (Fargo, North Dakota) to provide design and construction expertise for the dry mill fuel ethanol plant.

Plans are to construct a $54.6 million, 42 million gallon per year plant that will consume some 15 million bushels of Nebraska corn annually. The site is currently permitted as an 80 million gallon per year facility that will enable future expansion of the plant to happen more quickly.

Bio-Renewable will soon begin moving the dirt at the site in Lexington, located about 160 miles West of Lincoln and equipment procurement will start around late April and continue throughout the 15 month project construction schedule.

Construction is targeted to be completed before the June 2004 that marks the deadline for companies to qualify for state ethanol production credits.

Jay Brunson, Manager of Synthetic Fuels for Industrialinfo.com adds, "Currently Nebraska is home to six operational ethanol plants capable of producing over 390 million gallons per year of the renewable fuel. Two other companies have new plants under construction in the state as well. Our Ethanol Production Database outlines all current development activities in the ethanol market. We are tracking 82 operational ethanol plants and 103 plants under development."

Click on the image at right to view the Ethanol Production Database - Nebraska Sample.

Husker Ag Processing is nearing completion of a 20 million gallon per year plant in Plainview and KAPPA is expecting an August 2003 completion of a 30 million gallon per year plant near Minden. Four other ethanol plants totaling 175 million gallons per year are on deck for construction in Nebraska in the future.