Robert Pore's Ag Blog

The Nebraska Ethanol Board has released a new ethanol plant guide.

The publication is designed to assist communities and ethanol plant development groups during the process of developing ethanol projects.

The new publication, "A Guide for Evaluating the Requirements of Ethanol Plants", provides details of the typical ethanol plant development process. Many communities and plant developers spend two to four years from initial planning to successful plant start-up.

During the past decade, interest in the production of biofuels from renewable resources has continued to grow throughout the United States. Major grain producing states have placed special emphasis on the production of ethanol.

According to the Nebraska Ethanol Board, about 22 ethanol plants are in the planning stages for the state. Nebraska has 12 plants running, producing 635 million gallons of ethanol a year.

Two more plants are scheduled to open this year, one in Mead and one in Jackson, adding about 70 million gallons of ethanol production a year.

The current demand for ethanol and the projected increase in ethanol use under a national renewable fuels standard continues to stimulate interest in the prospects for development of new ethanol plants.

A federal mandate calls for drivers to use 7.5 billion gallons of renewable fuel by 2012. Also, clean-air programs cities across the nation depend on ethanol as a cleaner-burning fuel blend.

The ethanol plant guide was developed in response to requests for assistance by communities, cooperatives and ethanol plant development groups.

The publication is based on experiences in ethanol plant development gained over more than a decade.

"Many Nebraska communities have requested assistance in their efforts to recruit ethanol plants,” said Todd Sneller, Ethanol Board Administrator.

He said experiences gained in Nebraska and other Midwestern states are applicable in other areas of the country. “The ethanol plant development guide provides an excellent orientation to the process of identifying plant sites and other resources necessary for a successful project,” Sneller said.

The ethanol plant guide is designed to provide an overview of plant site selection requirements, environmental permits, business models and other tips that will increase the prospects for a productive evaluation process.

The ethanol plant guide was developed in cooperation with the Clean Fuels Development Coalition in cooperation with the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

Copies of the publication will be distributed nationwide to departments of agriculture and other agencies that provide support for ethanol plant development. Copies of the publication are available from the Nebraska Ethanol Board.

Electronic copies of the publication can be viewed on the Nebraska Ethanol Board web site www.ne-ethanol.org and the Clean Fuels Development Coalition web site www.cleanfuelsdc.org.