MinnErgy's Southeastern Minnesota Fuel-Ethanol Plant May Come off "On Hold" Status

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Researched by Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas)--Investor-owned MinnErgy LLC (Eyota, Minnesota) received some good news this week, as the Olmsted County board reached an agreement to grant a zoning request change on the land where the company plans to build the plant from Ag to Ag Resource zone, a move that may get the project going again. The $133 million project was put on hold in December as a result of low investor interest and high start-up costs, which led the developers to hold off on moving forward with construction.

The project still has hurdles to jump as MinnErgy needs to obtain its conditional-use permit from the county and secure financing. The company indicated that no time line has been set as to when construction may start, but the developer is optimistic that the project will begin moving forward again.

Plans call for construction of a 55 million-gallon-per-year that will process more than 53,000 bushels a day of corn and generate an estimated 484 tons of distillers grains daily. The plant will utilize ICM Incorporated (Colwich, Kansas) licensed process technology and will be built by Fagen Incorporated (Granite Falls, Minnesota).

Once complete, the plant will create an estimated 30-36 jobs for the rural community, located roughly 80 miles south of the Minneapolis-St. Paul area in southeastern Minnesota.

Currently there is only one fuel-ethanol plant under construction in Minnesota. Highwater Ethanol LLC is constructing a 50 million-gallon-per-year plant in Lamberton, and the plant is scheduled to go into operation in June.

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.

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