Green Plains Starts Grinding Corn in Ord, Nebraska; Central City Close Behind

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Researched by Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas)--Green Plains Renewable Energy Incorporated (NASDAQ:GPRE) (Omaha, Nebraska) started grinding corn at its recently acquired fuel ethanol plant in Ord, Nebraska, on July 12. Shipments of ethanol from the facility could begin as early as this week.

The plant originally opened in May 2007 under previous owner US BioEnergy. In April of 2008, US BioEnergy merged with now bankrupt VeraSun Energy Corporation (Sioux City, South Dakota). The plant operated until November 2008, after which it sat idle until last weekend. Seeing clouds of steam rise from the facility is good news for the rural community.

When fully operational, the plant has the capacity to produce 50 million gallons per year of fuel ethanol, using more than 19 million bushels of locally grown corn.

About 60 miles to the northwest, similar activity is happening at Green Plains' recently acquired plant in Central City. The plant was also a former VeraSun facility, and currently plant personnel are going through processing system checks. The plant is taking in corn and expects to start grinding by the end of July. The facility had been sitting idle since January of this year.

When fully operational, the plant will produce 100 million gallons per year of fuel ethanol. Both of the Nebraska plants were designed and built by the teams of ICM Incorporated (Colwich, Kansas) and Fagen Incorporated (Granite Falls, Minnesota). With the acquisitions, Green Plains becomes the fourth largest U.S. ethanol producer with more than 480 million gallons of annual production capacity.

Industrial Info's Ethanol Database provides a comprehensive outline of all current development activities in the emerging alternative fuels market. This database covers 192 ethanol plants in operation and 530 plants under development. It also covers 141 operational biodiesel plants and 245 biodiesel plants under development.

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