Gibson City Ethanol Plant Production May Start Soon

By Michelle Koetters, The Pantagraph, Bloomington, Ill.

Oct. 15–GIBSON CITY — Five Illinois grain cooperatives are financially ready for construction on their planned ethanol plant to begin.

One Earth Energy LLC has closed on a $110 million loan with First National Bank of Omaha’s Renewable Fuels Group to build a 100-million gallon ethanol plant on Gibson City’s west side. The group also has raised $66 million from individual investors to cover the remaining construction costs and working capital for the plant’s first year, said Steve Kelly, president of One Earth Energy.

“Now the project is solid, and it can move forward,” Kelly said.

Construction work is expected to start at the end of the month, and the plant is expected to be up and running by July 2009, he said.

Partners in One Earth Energy include Alliance Grain Co., Gibson City; Fisher Farmers Grain, Fisher; Grand Prairie Co-op, Tolono; Ludlow Cooperative Elevator, Ludlow; and Topflight Grain Cooperative, Bement.

The ethanol plant will be built on 84 acres north of Alliance Grain Co., 1306 W. Eighth St. It will use 36 million bushels of corn a year, delivered from Alliance Grain, said Kelly, who’s also the elevator’s grain manager.

The plant will create 42 to 45 full-time jobs once it begins ethanol production, Kelly said. In the meantime, as many as 300 construction workers will contribute to the Gibson City economy, he said.

“They’ll need places to live and food to eat. They’ll be good consumers,” Kelly said. “This will be their community — their home away from home.”

The city also will benefit from the plant through the taxes it will generate, he said.

The cooperative had hoped to already be in the building stages this fall, so members are excited to know construction work is close now, Kelly said.

“We put a lot of time and energy into getting it to this point,” Kelly said.

Fagen Inc., an ethanol plant contractor from Granite Falls, Minn., designed the project and will be the general contractor.

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