Ring-Neck Energy Receives Zoning Approval for Fuel Ethanol Plant in South Dakota

---

Researched by Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas)--Fuel ethanol start-up cooperative Ring-Neck Energy & Feed LLC (Onida, South Dakota) is boldly going where no ethanol plant has gone before: central South Dakota.

While the other 15 fuel ethanol plants in the state are located closer to the U.S. Corn Belt, they are sweating it out over fears that the fuel ethanol boom could fade. Facing uncertainty regarding the overhaul of the Renewable Fuels Standard, Ring-Neck is proceeding with the dirt work and pre-construction activity for a fuel ethanol plant in Onida.

The plant, with its nearest competitor for corn located some 80 miles to the east in Redfield, will be the farthest such facility west of the Corn Belt in South Dakota.

The project had faced local opposition since its development was announced in mid-2014, due to questions regarding whether it was improperly given a conditional use permit by leaders of Sully County. County Judge John Brown recently affirmed the rezoning approval, and the project is now moving forward.

After the building permit is approved, construction is expected to be in full swing by the end of the first-quarter 2016.

The cooperative is proceeding with a $90 million equity drive to raise the remaining funds to construct the estimated $140 million plant. The plant will process 25 million bushels of locally grown corn into ethanol each year, and 212,000 tons of by-product dried distillers' grains. Plans also call for the installation of a corn oil extraction system that would yield about 12.5 million pounds of corn oil annually, to be used as feedstock for biodiesel production.

Design-build contractor Fagen Incorporated (Granite Falls, Minnesota) already has personnel on site in anticipation of completing construction and having the plant up and running by the fall of 2017, just in time for the corn harvest.

When complete, the plant will add 70 million gallons of capacity to the nation's sixth-ranked state for ethanol production, bringing South Dakota's production numbers to more than 1.13 million gallons annually.

Today, a war is being waged, as the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) prepares to finalize new targets for the Renewable Fuels Standard by the end of this month. But the EPA is so far behind in setting the targets that some of the quotas about to be delivered are for the years 2014 and 2015.

Big oil and environmental critics, as well as scientists, are charging that the decade-old, biofuel quota system, which is generally centered on corn-based ethanol, is distorting food markets, polluting national waters and throwing off more greenhouse gases than the gasoline it replaces. The new targets, they argue, only will make things worse.

Industrial Info Resources (IIR), with global headquarters in Sugar Land, Texas, five offices in North America and 10 international offices, is the leading provider of global market intelligence specializing in the industrial process, heavy manufacturing and energy markets. Industrial Info's quality-assurance philosophy, the Living Forward Reporting Principle™, provides up-to-the-minute intelligence on what's happening now, while constantly keeping track of future opportunities.