Indiana lands $400M ethanol plant
Business First of Louisville - August 11, 2006
Indiana is about to get another ethanol plant -- a $400 million, 220-gallon facility that will be built on 116 acres leased from the Port of Indiana in Mount Vernon, two hours west of Louisville.
Pekin, Ill.-based Aventine Renewable Energy Holdings Inc. and Mandeville, La.-based Consolidated Grain and Barge Co. have partnered to build the plant, which will be Indiana's largest ethanol facility. Consolidated Grain and Barge already has grain facilities at the Mount Vernon port.
Aventine will operate the plant and market the ethanol to BP, ConocoPhillips, Chevron-Texaco, Shell, Marathon and other North American energy companies.
The plant will use 80 million bushels of corn from area farmers each year and will employ about 70 workers, according to a news release.
Construction is expected to begin in April and be completed by January 2010. Phase I of the project, which will allow the production of 110 million gallons of ethanol, should be finished by September 2008, the release said.
In the past year and a half, Indiana has announced 12 new ethanol plants with combined production of 1.16 billion gallons annually, and three new biodiesel plants with combined production of 90 million gallons annually. The plants are expected to create 675 jobs and bring $1.77 billion in capital investment.
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