Dakota Spirit AgEnergy Adds 65 Million Gallons of Fuel Ethanol to Domestic Capacity

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Researched by Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas)--Dakota Spirit AgEnergy LLC's (Spiritwood, North Dakota) fuel-ethanol plant has completed commissioning and is in full commercial-scale operation. Dakota Spirit AgEnergy is owned by Great River Energy (Maple Grove, Minnesota) and Midwest AgEnergy Group LLC (Bismarck, North Dakota).

The project has been six years in the making, and some of the farmer investors have been waiting 15 years for a local ethanol plant in Stutsman County. The facility also is the first corn-based ethanol plant to begin production since 2010.

The estimated $150 million plant will process 23 million bushels of corn into 65 million gallons of fuel ethanol per year. It also will produce and an estimated 173,000 tons per year of distillers dried grains. The plant also generates 6,900 tons of corn oil, which is used in the production of biodiesel.

Karges-Faulconbridge (Saint Paul, Minnesota) provided the ethanol process technology, and the plant was built by design-build contractor McGough Construction Incorporated (Saint Paul, Minnesota).

The plant is located 11 miles east of Jamestown in Stutsman County. It has a storage capacity 1.75 million bushels of corn, which is enough feedstock to last for 25 days of continuous operation. The plant also receives process steam from the 99-megawatt, coal-fired Spiritwood Generation Station, which is located nearby. The official opening event was held July 24 and attended by state and local officials.

North Dakota now has five operational fuel ethanol plants, ranking the state 10th in U.S. production. The state has an estimated 463 million gallons of annual production capacity on-line, ranking behind Iowa, Nebraska, Illinois, Minnesota, Indiana, South Dakota, Ohio, Wisconsin and Kansas. Total U.S. production levels now sit at more than 15.5 billion gallons annually.

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