Forty-Eight New Fuel-Ethanol Plants Go Online in 2008 Representing 3.5 Billion Gallons of Production Capacity

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Researched by Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas)--Despite all the gloom in North America's fuel-ethanol production industry, 48 new ethanol plants went online in 2008, representing 3.578 billion gallons of ethanol production capacity and a total production capacity of more than 11.2 billion gallons.

Click on the image at right for a chart showing 2008 ethanol plant start-ups with employee counts.

The state gaining the most new ethanol facilities was Ohio with seven new plants going into operation and representing an additional capacity of 525 million gallons of ethanol production.

The state gaining the most capacity in 2008 was Iowa with six new plants going online, representing 640 million gallons of production capacity. Two of these new plants belong to the bankrupt VeraSun Energy (NYSE:VSE) (Brookings, South Dakota) and are located in Dyersville and Hartley, Iowa.

Ranking third in new ethanol plants gained is Indiana. The state had five new plants go into operation representing 434 million gallons of additional capacity. Leading ethanol producer POET (Sioux Falls, South Dakota) had two plants start up in Alexandria and North Manchester and, for the year, had more plants start up than any other company with five new plants going online in Ohio and Indiana.

Additional states gaining new plants are Texas, Illinois and Wisconsin, each with three. California, Georgia, Kansas, Minnesota, Nebraska and South Dakota each got two new ethanol plants in operation. States with at least one new plant going online include Idaho, Michigan, Mississippi, Missouri, North Dakota, Oregon and Wyoming. The Canadian provinces of Ontario and Saskatchewan each gained one new plant as well.

Industrial Info's Ethanol Database provides a comprehensive outline of all current development activities in the emerging alternative fuels market. This database covers 177 ethanol plants in operation and 530 plants under development. It also covers 145 operational biodiesel plants and 245 biodiesel plants under development.

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.