New ethanol plants to be built in Midwest by Washington Group
Washington Group International is building three ethanol plants in the Midwest, for a total cost of $150 million US. The plants are going to be built in Wahoo, Nebraska, and in Red Oak and Council Bluffs, Iowa. Each plant is expected to produce 110 million gallons of ethanol per year. Construction on the first plant (in Wahoo) started in September, whereas the work on the two plants in Iowa is scheduled to start during the fourth quarter of 2007 (i.e., real soon).The product from which this ethanol is going to be made is, you guessed right, corn. The plants will also produce corn gluten feed and meal, corn germ and wet and dry distiller grains with solubles.
These plants will supply ethanol to E85 Inc., one of the most important ethanol distributors in the US.
Related:
[Source: Washington Group International & E85 Inc.]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
AlexP 8:28AM (11/14/2007)
Keep on telling yourselves there's something green about corn-based ethanol.
The energy displacement ethanol provides for the energy it requires to be produced (transport, the power the plants need, pesticides (Jesus Christ you should see the boom the whole ethanol jerkfest created in the pesticide/herbicide/etc. industries)etc...) well, it just doesn't make sense that we're pushing this... And to add insult to injury, most corn ethanol plants run on coal power plants, just so you know (jeesh, it even pollutes just as much as regular gasoline).
The amount of corn required to fill up your car once could feed someone for over an entire year.
So, overall: ethanol is just a way for the United States to keep money away from the middle east, even though they are quite far from being your primary providers (of oil, that is).
You can't argue over facts. Look it all up, it's true. I can't blame the automotive manufacturers for trying to get more people in their showrooms (primarily Chrysler and GM), but I can surely say that anything ethanol related doesn't deserve to be on this blog, simply because corn ethanol is anything but green.
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Owain Ozymandias Buck 8:39AM (11/15/2007)
"I can surely say that anything ethanol related doesn't deserve to be on this blog, simply because corn ethanol is anything but green."
I know I should resist the temptation to respond to this, but I'm not in a patient mood this A.M.--
Dude, I doubt many folks on here are claiming that corn ethanol is very green. the no-ethanol blanket statement is not very rational.
Corn is a stop gap, no question. We're doing it because it's been around for a long time. The process is proven and the infrastructure is in place. Long term, it's not sustainable and could never meet all our fuel needs. Neither could biodiesel from soybean or even canola. But corn ethanol and oilseed biodiesel do clear the road for next generation biofuels.
Eventually, hopefully, biofuels will give way to more efficient ways to store energy chemically--to tranform into electrical energy. The technology and infratructure needs to grow for that to happen. None of this can happen overnight--that's why we need to work hard on this now, before it really bites us in the butt.
But to blanketly state that nothing ethanol related needs to be on this blog is just irrational and rather emotional.
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Chris Adams 10:18AM (11/15/2007)
The well known think-tank RAND corporation recently weighed in on Diesel vs. Hybrid vs. E85. Conclusion? Read it for yourself. And the news isn't good for E85
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2007-11/rc-rpf110807.php
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Owain Ozymandias Buck 11:56AM (11/15/2007)
Read the actual report: http://www.rand.org/pubs/working_papers/2007/RAND_WR537.pdf
"But if the cost of producing ethanol for E85 declines significantly or if gasoline prices remain very high ($3.50 per gallon), then E85 has positive NPV and can compete favorably with diesels and hybrids."
Granted, that's talking about costs.
Also, this study presumes based on corn ethanol--once again, nothing but a stop gap. As are IC engines, but that's another topic, and one I don't have any supporting evidence for, just opinion. But the authors declare in the paper that looking at cellulosic ethanol or tariff-free imported ethanol is beyond the scope of the paper.
RTWFA before you say "the news isn't good for E85."
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