Ethanol Plant Development in Nebraska May Have Peaked

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Researched by Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas). According to data extracted from Industrial Info’s ethanol production package, the state of Nebraska currently has 14 operational ethanol plants that have the combined capacity of producing over 675 million gallon of fuel ethanol on an annual basis. That translates to about 260 million bushels of corn in the state that go straight toward fuel production. The state ranks third in the U.S. in bushels produced with the latest estimates on overall corn production in 2006 at around 1.17 billion bushels annually.

Today, there are over 37 plants in the pre-construction phase under development in the state, representing an additional capacity of around 3.1 billion gallons per year. Currently 15 plants are under construction representing over one billion gallons of additional capacity. All together, more than 4 billion gallons of additional capacity are under development in Nebraska.

Using the standard calculation that one bushel of corn yields about 2.6 gallons of ethanol, the state would require a corn crop of 1.7 billion bushels per year to sustain that level of ethanol production. That number is well above the state’s 2006 production output of 1.17 billion bushels, considering not all Nebraska grown corn is used for ethanol production.

Farmers in Nebraska are planting more corn in 2007 due to record corn prices, and it would take a crystal ball to determine just how big this season’s harvest will be. With the price of corn exceeding $4 per bushel and ethanol at $2 per gallon, developers may back off plant development in the state until corn prices stabilize.

Jay Brunson, Industrial Info’s Vice President of Alternative Fuels adds, “We have not seen many projects drop off the radar in Nebraska and developers for the most part in the state, are confident they will get funding and secure technology providers and contractors to build plants. On the flip side, we also have not seen a great deal of new ethanol players emerging with plans to build plants in Nebraska recently.”

Oregon Trail Ethanol cancelled plans for a new plant that was going to be built in Davenport, and Bunge and Crossroads Cooperative have put plans to build in Crete and Gering on-hold.

If all plants move forward as planned, a whopping $6.2 billion will be spent to build out Nebraska fuel ethanol plants.

Industrial Info's Ethanol Production Database provides a comprehensive outline of all current development activities in the emerging synthetic fuels market. This database covers 123 ethanol plants currently in operation and 290 plants under development. It also covers 32 operational biodiesel plants and 75 biodiesel plants under development.

Industrial Info Resources (IIR) provides marketing communication services ranging from industrial database solutions to market forecasting, custom analytics, and specialty promotions that support high-level image campaigns.