Ethanol Grain Processors Performs "First Grind" at New Tennessee Plant

---

Researched by Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas)--Investor-owned Ethanol Grain Processors (Rives, Tennessee), a subsidiary of Green Plains Renewable Energy Incorporated (NASDAQ:GPRE) (Omaha, Nebraska), has performed the ceremonial "first grind" this past weekend to start ethanol production at a new plant in Rives. The plant will now go into the start-up and commissioning phase to ensure that all equipment and systems are performing properly, and ethanol is expected to begin flowing from the plant by next week.

Construction of the 100 million-gallon-per-year plant started in December 2006 and utilized the design-build team of ICM Incorporated (Colwich, Kansas) and Fagen Incorporated (Granite Falls, Minnesota). The plant has a nameplate capacity of 100 million gallons per year, but the company expects to reach production levels of 110 million gallons annually.

The estimated $160 million plant will process more than 36 million bushels of Tennessee corn per year and also produce 320,000 tons per year of distillers dried grains, a byproduct of ethanol production. The ethanol produced at the plant will be marketed by Aventine Renewable Energy (NYSE:AVR) (Pekin, Illinois) and the distillers grains by CHS Incorporated (Inver Grove Heights, Minnesota).

The plant is located on a 230-acre site at 1918 McDonald Road in Rives, about 130 miles west of Nashville in Obion County. Once fully operational, the plant will create 40 jobs for the rural community.

In news releases earlier this year, Ethanol Grain Processors' majority owner, Virgin Bioverda Ventures LLC (Chicago, Illinois), announced a merger with Green Plains Renewable. The merger was approved and completed on October 15. The combined companies have an overall capacity of 330 million gallons per year of ethanol production and a total of 22 million bushels of grain storage capacity. The plants are located in Shenandoah, Iowa; Superior, Iowa; and Bluffton, Indiana.

Industrial Info's Ethanol Database provides a comprehensive outline of all current development activities in the emerging alternative fuels market. This database covers 156 ethanol plants in operation and 530 plants under development. It also covers 98 operational biodiesel plants and 245 biodiesel plants under development.

View Plant Profile - 1068853 1066473 1068158 1071373

Industrial Info Resources (IIR) is a marketing information service specializing in industrial process, energy and financial related markets with products and services ranging from industry news, analytics, forecasting, plant and project databases, as well as multimedia services.