Ethanol Plant Kicks Off Near Lamar: Ritter Arrives for Ceremonies for the Plant Expected to Be Operational Soon.

By Anthony A. Mestas, The Pueblo Chieftain, Colo.

Mar. 16–LAMAR — The nation’s exasperating and increasing dependence on foreign oil is making consumers thirst for the alternative fuel ethanol, giving rise to a growing business that has reached Southeastern Colorado.

Under the bright sun, in a swirling cool breeze, Colorado Gov. Bill Ritter on Saturday helped break ground for the LiquidMaize Ethanol Production Plant, a $24 million ethanol facility that will be up and running later this year.

The ceremony ushered in the sixth ethanol plant in the state.

LiquidMaize, a Denver company that manages small-scale ethanol plants and other biofuel products facilities, announced plans to construct the 220,000 square-foot facility in 2006.

The plant, which is LiquidMaize’s first ethanol facility to be built in the state, will be erected on 8 acres of land just north of the Four States Feedyard, which is four miles north of town on Colorado 196.

Ritter, who joined area elected officials, energy industry leaders and the community to celebrate the groundbreaking, praised Prowers County for its effort to bring renewable energy to life in Southeastern Colorado.

“I truly believe that the way Prowers County thinks about renewable energy is not just the future of the state but so much the future of the country,” Ritter said.

Ritter said that the way citizens produce and consume energy, whether it be electricity or powering motor vehicles, will change.

“It’s going to change over the course of the next decade and several decades. We believe that what is happening here — whether you consider the wind energy (facilities) or now the build-out of the sixth ethanol plant in the state of Colorado, whatever way you look at it — this county is certainly taking very significant advantage of its resources,” Ritter said.

Ritter, who recently enacted legislation that requires Colorado utilities to generate 20 percent of their energy through renewable sources by 2020, said ethanol is a transition fuel where biofuels are concerned.

“How we go forward is really going to depend on research and development, but this is a great transition fuel and a great way for us to think differently about powering motor vehicles than just petroleum-based fuel or some other nonrenewable resource,” Ritter said.

“This is a day that you as a community should very much celebrate because it is a sign of further evidence that the folks in Prowers County know how important it is for you to be a part of our energy future and that we can develop an economy around that energy future.”

Once completed, the plant will create 14 jobs, and is expected to produce 11 million gallons of ethanol a year.

The company soon will begin contributing to Colorado’s “New Energy Economy” by producing renewable fuels using the most scientifically advanced techniques and the most innovative distribution model designed to strengthen Prowers County’s local economy, according to LiquidMaize officials.

Paul Orentas, a research and analysis manager for LiquidMaize, said the plant is expected to pump at least $25 million a year into the community.

“The money that you are spending for gasoline leaves this community. It goes to foreign oil. It doesn’t help you pay for your roads or your hospitals and schools, your food or even your home. What we are going to do today will change all of that. Our ethanol is your ethanol,” Orentas said.

Orentas said that he wants to keep as much money in Prowers County as possible.

Colorado Corn Growers Association will be the company’s primary feedstock provider, but Orentas said LiquidMaize is going to move toward different types of alternative feeds as well.

“Corn will be the first step in the direction of trying to build a better and cleaner environment,” Orentas said.

He said the plant will offer an additional market for corn and other key feedstocks in the area.

“As LiquidMaize researches the viability of alternative feedstocks, local farmers may be encouraged to vary their crops,” Orentas said.

Orentas said his company picked Prowers County because of its dedication to renewable energy through the Colorado Green Wind Project and the Twin Buttes Wind Power Project, two wind farms south of town.

“We love the push toward renewable energy and we are very honored to be here,” Orentas said.

Orentas said the company will work with the Lamar Chamber of Commerce to attract new companies.

“We want to attract companies that will work with us to help make Southeastern Colorado the cleanest, greenest place on Earth,” he said.

The plant will operate under the strategy of eliminating transportation costs for its wet distiller’s grain and reducing transportation costs for its ethanol.

The protein-rich distiller’s grain is a natural by-product of ethanol production and will be sold directly to the Four States Feedyard for its livestock.

Orentas said the ethanol will be sold on a “just in time” basis to local gasoline terminals, eliminating the need for investment in storage infrastructure.

When plans were announced for a new ethanol facility on the outskirts of this city of about 9,000, community leaders jumped for joy.

Prowers County Commissioner Gene Millbrand said Saturday that the joy is still present.

Located in the geographic eastern corner of the state, Lamar has experienced a recent erosion of its job market and tax base, but Millbrand and other county leaders said this new project is the auspicious development they have been looking for. “We were not only trying to attract businesses and jobs and tax revenue, we were trying to attract the kind of people to Prowers County that would be like family and partner with us and have a sincere interest in our community and not just a place to make money and go back home,” Millbrand said.

Millbrand said he was happy to announce that LiquidMaize will be donating $10,000 to the county fair this summer.

“That’s not just to buy our support. It’s because they truly want to be a part of our community,” Millbrand said.

According to the Governor’s Office of Energy Management and Conservation, as of July 2007, 86 plants across the United States were under construction or expanding for an additional 6.4 billion gallons per year capacity. Also as of July 2007, the 119 existing ethanol refineries produced almost 6.2 billion gallons per year.

LiquidMaize was launched in 2005 to build smaller ethanol plants near feedlots. The company plans to develop 24 plants around the U.S. by 2012.

ETHANOL PLANTS Here are the names and locations of ethanol plants in Colorado:

–Coors, Golden –Sterling Ethanol, Sterling –Front Range Energy, Windsor –Yuma Ethanol, Yuma –Cotton Farms, Eads –LiquidMaize, Lamar

WHAT IS ETHANOL?

–Ethanol is an alcohol-based alternative fuel produced by fermenting and distilling starchy crops that have been converted into simple sugars. –Feedstocks include corn, sugar beets, sugar cane, sorghum, barley and wheat. –Ethanol can also be produced from “cellulosic biomass” such as corn stover, trees and grasses and is called bioethanol. –Ethanol is most commonly used to increase octane and improve the emissions quality of gasoline.

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ON THE NET

LiquidMaize: http://liquidmaze.com/

Prowers County: http://www.prowerscounty.net/

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Copyright (c) 2008, The Pueblo Chieftain, Colo.

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