VeraSun's Hartley Iowa Ethanol Plant Shooting for Mid-June Start-Up

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Researched by Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas). The nation's second largest ethanol producer and publicly traded company VeraSun Energy Corporation (NYSE: VSE) (Brookings, South Dakota) is continuing a push to become a major player in the U.S. fuel ethanol market. VeraSun's overall ethanol production capacity is in the range of 980 million gallons annually and when the Hartley, Iowa plant goes into operation in mid-June, the company's capacity for producing the renewable fuel will jump to more than 1 billion gallons of capacity.

The Hartley plant started construction in December 2006, utilizing the design-build team of ICM Incorporated (Colwich, Kansas) and Fagen Incorporated (Granite Falls, Minnesota). With a production capacity of 110 million gallons per year, it will also be one of the largest plants of its kind in the U.S. Some 39 million bushels of locally grown corn will be processed annually at the plant and 350,000 tons per year of distillers grains, a by-product of ethanol production, will also be produced.

The plant is currently taking corn, but does not expect first grind until about the middle of the month. In the last couple of weeks, the plant took in some 480,000 bushels of grain and has an overall storage capacity of 2 million bushels on-site.

Construction costs to build the plant were estimated to be in the $150 million range.

The company's operational plants are located in Albert City, Iowa (110MM gal/yr); Albion, Nebraska (110MM gal/yr); Aurora, South Dakota (120MM gal/yr); Bloomingberg, Ohio (110MM gal/yr); Central City, Nebraska (100MM gal/yr); Charles City, Iowa (110MM gal/yr); Fort Dodge, Iowa (110MM gal/yr); Marion, South Dakota (110MM gal/yr); Ord, Nebraska (50MM gal/yr) and Lake Odessa, Michigan (50MM gal/yr).

VeraSun has plants currently under construction in Dyersville, Iowa (110MM gal/yr); Hankinson, North Dakota (110MM gal/yr); Hartley, Iowa (110MM gal/yr); Janesville, Minnesota (110MM gal/yr); Linden, Indiana (110MM gal/yr) and Welcome, Minnesota (110MM gal/yr).

Plans to build a 110 million gallon per year plant in Reynolds, Indiana have been shelved until more favorable ethanol market conditions are reached.

Industrial Info's Ethanol Database provides a comprehensive outline of all current development activities in the emerging alternative fuels market. This database covers 147 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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