Ethanol Plant To Be Built In San Jose
By Scott Miller, The Pantagraph, Bloomington, Ill.
Jun. 3–SAN JOSE — Ethanol plants are popping up in Central Illinois like dandelions. American Ethanol Inc., a Chicago-based company founded last year, purchased 105 acres of land from Taloma Farmers Grain Co. in San Jose to build an ethanol plant, the company announced Friday.
It’s part of a growing list of plants to produce the alternative fuel in Central Illinois.
The San Jose plant will employ 40 to 45 people and produce 100 million gallons of ethanol a year, said Andy Foster, executive vice president of marketing and external affairs for American Ethanol.
Unsure how long the permitting process would take, Foster didn’t know when construction would begin or when the plant would begin producing ethanol.
“You’re looking at late 2007 (for the plant to open), but probably more like early 2008,” he said.
American Ethanol purchased the land next to Taloma’s Allen Station, a train-loading facility about one mile west of San Jose.
Fred Reeves, general manager of the Delavan-based grain cooperative, said the station would remain open to provide corn to American Ethanol. He expects American Ethanol to purchase corn from Taloma, surrounding cooperative elevators and Illinois grain companies.
Central Illinois farmers can expect more money for their corn, he said.
“We think it will be good for a lot of farmers. Ethanol plants normally pay a little bit better for corn than the market,” Reeves said.
At this point, American Ethanol has no plants in operation, though it is ready to build two in Nebraska. It also has plans to construct plants in Dwight and Danville, Foster said.
Other companies have plans in the works in Saybrook, Hudson, Delavan and northern Livingston County, and a group of Illinois grain cooperatives announced Tuesday that Gibson City is in the running for a plant, as is Champaign County.
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Copyright (c) 2006, The Pantagraph, Bloomington, Ill.
Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News.
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