North Dakota Sugar Beets Production Plant Stalls as another Advanced Biofuels Facility Moves Forward

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Researched by Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas)--Biofuel production from sugar beets, or "energy beets," still remains a challenge, as no commercial scale bio-refineries have yet to be constructed in North America.

One group in North Dakota, BeetsAll Biofuel LLC (Fargo), has put plans for a beets-to-biofuels plant on hold. The project, which has been under development for 10 years, started out as a joint venture between Green Vision Group (West Fargo, North Dakota) and Heartland Renewable Energy LLC (Longmont, Colorado).

The company announced that plans to develop a commercial scale 20 million gallon-per-year biofuel and industrial chemicals plant utilizing energy sugar beets as feedstock have been delayed at least a year while the company evaluates sugar beet crop and juice storage issues.

Green Vision Group's vision is to have a processing plant that can process feedstock year round rather than only running through the fall and winter periods just after harvest. In addition, the cost of sugars are not aligned to where a plant can run on energy beets while making a profit.

Biofuel from sugar beets produces twice as much fuel ethanol per acre than corn and qualifies as an advanced biofuel. It also costs twice as much to produce. The company is looking to offset costs by producing by-products such as chemicals and plastics, but until storage issues are resolved, Green Vision is holding off on moving forward with development for at least one year.

Meanwhile, another company, New Energy Investors LLC (Leola, Pennsylvania), is moving forward with an advanced biofuel facility in the same Spiritwood Energy Park Association complex in Spiritwood, North Dakota, which has been attracting renewable energy projects and industrial development from companies such as Dakota Spirit AgEnergy and its ethanol plant, Just Wind LLC and Courtenay Wind Farm LLC and their wind farm projects, Great River Energy's Spiritwood electrical generation station and a Cargill Malt location.

There is also a potential $450 million iron nugget production facility planned by Carbontec Energy Corporation (Bismarck, North Dakota) that is expected to start construction later this year.

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