E3 BioFuels will open its closed-loop ethanol plant at the end of this month in Nebraska. Closed-loop, in this instance, means that the company is technically able to make ethanol without using any fossil fuels. The idea is that by placing a large cattle feedlot next to an ethanol plant (with an anaerobic digester in between), you can use the cow manure to make biogas and burn the biogas to power the ethanol-making machines. The leftover wet grain from the ethanol plant is then fed to the cows. And so on.

Of course, there are still lots of ways for fossil fuels to enter into this process (the trucks that deliver the ethanol feedstock are the most obvious culprits), but this is a system that does do well in thinking about how to turn waste materials to useful ones. E3 BioFuels admits the process "uses virtually no fossil fuel."

E3 BioFuels CEO Dennis Langley and Nebraska Gov. Dave Heineman will be at the Genesis Plant in Mead, Nebraska on June 28. The plant was supposed to open late last year (see link below).

Related:

• Methane-powered ethanol plant to go online in Nebraska in December

[Source: E3 BioFuels-Mead, LLC]