Ethanol online soon
Ray-Carroll growers supplying all corn for plant
, Publisher/Editor
05-23-2008
“Anytime, very soon” is the start-up date for the $90 million Show Me Ethanol plant in Carrollton, according to Greg Thomas, general manager for Show Me Ethanol. And when the first grinding of corn does occur, every kernel of it will be supplied by Ray-Carroll County Grain Growers Inc.
Ray-Carroll will provide around 20 million bushels of corn a year to produce 55 million gallons of denatured ethanol, according to Mike Nordwald, general manager for Ray-Carroll. He said the vast majority of corn will originate north of the Missouri River.
For Nordwald, Ray-Carroll’s partnership with Show Me Ethanol is a new market in a new era. The project took two-and-a-half years to complete, he said.
“It’s a changing culture for Ray-Carroll. Supplying daily corn to them [Show Me Ethanol] versus loading trains for domestic or export at that location,” he said. “We could see the use of renewables were going to increase; we had oil beginning to escalate rather quickly, and a war in Iraq. Many factors said it was time to move in that direction. It also helps diversify our operations. It does create a new demand for our producers’ grain, which can help their price.”
New crop corn has risen to $5.85 a bushel in Carrollton – 20 cents higher than Tuesday – as crude oil jumped to $135 a barrel overnight. With current market conditions, Nordwald doesn’t expect the price to go down anytime soon.
Carrollton’s Ray-Carroll elevator will continue to load soybeans and wheat, and now ethanol. In the future, dried distillers grains (DDG), will be shipped from that location. Distillers grains is the product after ethanol is removed from fermented corn mash, and used to feed livestock. Ray-Carroll will market all DDGs produced by the plant to end users in the livestock field. The majority of distillers grains will stay in Missouri; however, Nordwald also anticipates exporting the product overseas. About 176,000 tons of DDGs will be produced yearly from the plant, Thomas said.
Both Thomas and Nordwald said there is enough corn supply to meet demand in the export, ethanol and feed and seed markets.
The 33-acre ethanol plant, adjacent to the Carrollton elevator, will employ 35 people with a payroll of $1.4 million a year, according to Thomas.
Thomas anticipates an open house in mid-July for Show Me Ethanol.
“I’m looking forward to showing off the facility. I appreciate the support of the community and the local media,” he said.
Ray-Carroll is one of about 550 investors in the plant. The project was also awarded $2.1 million over five years from the state’s quality economic enterprise development zone incentive. Those funds were released last week to Show Me Ethanol.
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