Tharaldson Energy Begins Construction on North Dakota Fuel Ethanol Plant

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Researched by Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas) -- Privately held Tharaldson Energy Group LLC (Fargo, North Dakota) has begun construction and started porting tank pads for fermenters on yet another fuel ethanol plant that will be located in Casselton, North Dakota. A ceremonial ground breaking took place over the weekend and firms involved with the engineering and construction for the plant are scrambling to get the project to a point where contractors can continue work throughout the coming winter months.

Plans call for the creation of a nameplate 100 million gallon per year plant that will process 36 million bushels of Dakota grown corn annually. The plant will also generate about 300,000 tons of distillers dried grains per year, a by-product of ethanol production.

Vogelbusch USA Incorporated (Katy, Texas) is providing the licensed ethanol process technology and the plant is being engineered and built by the team of Valley Engineering Inc (Fargo, North Dakota) and Wanzek Construction (Fargo, North Dakota).

Construction is expected to take about sixteen months to complete and the target start-up date for the plant is December of 2008. Some 600 plus contractors and support employees are expected to be on site during construction of the plant and once completed, 50 new permanent jobs will be created.

Costs to build the plant are in the $200 million range.

Tharaldson also marks the forth biofuels plant currently being built in the state of North Dakota. U.S BioEnergy is building a 100 million gallon per year ethanol plant in Hankinson; Dakota Skies Biodiesel is building a 30 million gallon per year biodiesel plant in Minot and ADM is building a 50 million gallon per year biodiesel plant in Velva.

Industrial Info's Ethanol Production Database provides a comprehensive outline of all current development activities in the emerging synthetic fuels market. This database covers 124 ethanol plants currently in operation and 504 plants under development. It also covers sixty-eight operational biodiesel plants and 205 biodiesel plants under development.

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