Panhandle Energies to build Two Ethanol Plants in Texas, Technology Provider Identified

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Researched by Industrialinfo.com (Industrial Information Resources, Incorporated; Houston, Texas). Start-up energy company, Panhandle Energies LLC (Shreveport, Louisiana) is planning to construct two ethanol plants in the Texas panhandle area by next year, if all goes as planned.

The company is planning to construct two 40 million gallon per year fuel ethanol plants in Dumas and Sunray, Texas. One reason that ethanol production is feasible in the area is due to the abundance of livestock feedlots. The feedlots serve as a potential market for dried distillers grain, a byproduct generated during ethanol production. Another key factor in making the region attractive to ethanol production is the availability of feedstock. Both grain sorghum and wheat crops are grown in the area.

Once financing is secured, Panhandle is optimistic construction can begin as early as January of 2004. Both plants would be up and running some 14 to 16 months later.

Panhandle Energies partners are associated with Unity International Construction, a Shreveport, Louisiana construction company that will act as the general contractor for the project, and they have selected Delta-T Corporation (Williamsburg, Virginia) as the process technology provider for the plants.

Each plant is projected to cost around $40 million each and chew up approximately eleven million bushels per year of wheat sorghum and grain per year adding value to crops and creating jobs in a rural area of the Texas Panhandle.

Panhandle is not the first company with plans to build new ethanol plants in Texas. Three other companies are looking into constructing new plants within the next two years. If all goes as planned, Panhandle may be constructing a third plant in Perryton, Texas in the future.