Ethanol plant preparation to start with port board approval

~ Facility will create ethanol and food-grade corn products.

An ethanol plant and corn mill planned for the Southeast Missouri Regional Port Authority would more than double the tonnage shipped from the port each year, increase port revenue by $150,000 and provide a strong economic boost to the region.

That was some of the information that was conveyed at a port authority board meeting Monday, where a property lease agreement was unanimously approved with Ethanex at SEMO Port, LLC.

The $200 million ethanol plant is a joint venture between SEMO Milling, a corn mill currently under construction, and Kansas-based Ethanex Energy North America Inc., which designs and develops ethanol plants.

The corn mill is expected to begin full production by December and construction is expected to begin on the nearby 100-million-gallon-per-year ethanol plant by the end of the year. Production of ethanol, an alcohol-based renewable fuel being used to increase octane and improve the emissions quality of gasoline, is expected to begin next fall.

Harbor Road site

Site preparation is expected to start this week on the ethanol plant, which will be built on 20 acres just off Harbor Road. The venture will require the company to fill 431,000 cubic yards to raise the plant above the 500-year flood plain, said Ken Deline of Vail, Colo., one of the preliminary investors and board chairman.

The meeting was a special board meeting, Deline said, because the company wanted to "expedite" the process so site work could begin this week, he said.

Gov. Matt Blunt last week barred the state from giving discretionary tax breaks to corporate-owned ethanol and biodiesel plants, reserving the incentives for facilities owned primarily by farmers.

Deline said that Blunt's announcement last week won't affect their project at all.

"Not one iota," he said. "We're not relying on any tax credits or subsidies. This is an independently financed project. Some tax incentives or some improvements money is always nice, but it is not built into our model."

When told this was a rare move, Deline said "there are certain advantages to taking the right partners." The investors for the ethanol plant are from out of state, mainly from Colorado.

The corn mill and ethanol plant is expected to create between 90 and 100 jobs, said operations manager Dan Claycamp. The ethanol plant and corn mill will be a "food/fuel" facility, meaning it will create ethanol as well as human-grade corn products.

About 75 to 80 percent production will be geared toward ethanol production for companies like Chevron, and 20 to 25 percent will be food-grade products, such as cereals, brewer grits, fish batter and breading for companies like Kellogg and Gilster-Mary Lee, Claycamp said.

Of the food-grade product, 70 percent will be for domestic customers and 30 percent will be for U.S. contracts to help feed Third World countries like India, Haiti and those in Africa.

Dan Overbey, port authority executive director, said the ethanol plant will be good for the port, too. Last year, the port shipped 1 million tons of products and projections place the tonnage per year from the ethanol plant and corn mill at 1.4 million.

Port revenue boost

The port's revenue currently is $400,000 a year. That revenue would go up by $150,000 a year after both facilities are in full production, Overbey said. That money comes from lease payments and a port charge of 20 cents per ton for shipping.

Overbey would not provide a full copy of the lease agreement.

Missouri now has ethanol plants in Craig, Macon and Malta Bend. A fourth is expected to begin production in Laddonia this fall. Combined, the four plants are expected to produce about 156 million gallons of ethanol annually.

Two other ethanol plants are in the planning stages in Southeast Missouri. Developer Phil Danforth of Leawood, Kan., hopes construction on more than 100 acres along Nash Road will start in late summer and that the plant will be fully operational 18 months later. The site is in Cape Girardeau County near the airport.

Late last year, Bootheel Agri-Energy LLC, headed by Chaffee farmer David Herbst, announced its intention to build a $205 million plant near Sikeston. All three local plants plan to produce 100 million gallons of ethanol each a year.

smoyers@semissourian.com

335-6611, extension 137