Osage Bio Energy Obtains Permit and Selects Contractor for Virginia Ethanol Plant

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Researched by Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas)--Investor-owned ethanol start-up Osage Bio Energy LLC (Glen Allen, Virginia) has received an air-quality permit from the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality. The company has selected a construction contractor and is now moving into the next stage of development on what will likely be Virginia's first fuel ethanol plant, which will be located in the city of Hopewell.

The company secured financing for the project in May. After obtaining Hopewell City Council's approval and getting past local opposition, the project is moving ahead.

Plans call for the creation of a 60 million-gallon-per-year fuel ethanol plant that will use barley feedstocks, unlike many mid-west ethanol plants, which use corn. Ethanol production plants require slightly smaller amounts of barley than corn to produce an equivalent amount of ethanol. Barley is a winter crop that is considered an energy crop. The barley will be grown for the production of ethanol and does not compete for land used for food production.

Barley-based ethanol is considered an advanced biofuel that offers area farmers an additional crop-planting option. Barley does not require the nutrients and moisture necessary for corn, and it can be double-cropped with food crops such as soybeans. The production facility is expected to require over 24 million bushels of barley annually.

The plant will utilize KATZEN International Incorporated's (Cincinnati, Ohio) licensed ethanol processing technology and will be constructed by Agra Industries Incorporated (Merrill, Wisconsin).

Construction of the $161 million facility is expected to get under way in October of this year and take 16 months to complete. The plant is expected to be fully operational by February of 2010.

The plant will be built on a 55-acre site at the end of Main Street in Hopewell, about 20 miles south of Richmond. When completed, the project is expected to create 75 new jobs for the area.

Industrial Info's Ethanol Database provides a comprehensive outline of all current development activities in the emerging alternative fuels market. This database covers 156 ethanol plants in operation and 530 plants under development. It also covers 98 operational biodiesel plants and 245 biodiesel plants under development.

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