Two new ethanol projects announced

Two new ethanol projects in Iowa were announced on Thursday.

Green Plains Renewable Energy plans to build its second ethanol plant near Superior. The plant will have the capacity to produce 50 million gallons of ethanol a year, similar to a plant Great Plains Renewable Energy is building in Shenandoah. That plant is scheduled to begin producing ethanol in the spring of 2007.

Also, River/Gulf Energy said it intends to break ground during the second half of 2006, with production starting 15 months later, at an ethanol plant in Buffalo, near the Quad Cities on the Mississippi River.

Plans call for a 100 million gallon per year plant to be built there on a 100-acre industrial site that was the home of the former PCS fertilizer plant that closed several years ago.

The first phase calls for construction of a 50 million gallon a year plant with a barge dock to ship ethanol by river.

A second phase will double production of the plant, said Rich Goldstein, manager.

River/Gulf Energy is associated with River/Gulf Grain Co., a Quad Cities-based grain merchandiser and river terminal operator, and Alter Barge Line, which operates on the Mississippi River.
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