Blairstown Ethanol Plant to Double Capacity

By Dave DeWitte, The Gazette, Cedar Rapids, Iowa

Jan. 21–The new owner of a Blairstown ethanol plant plans to more than double the plant’s capacity to 12 million gallons per year after making major strides in improving the plant’s output.

Xethanol Corp. acquired the Blairstown plant in fall 2004 and restarted production at the plant in July 2005. At the time Xethanol acquired the plant, it was rated to produce 5 million gallons of ethanol per year, a small output by today’s standards.

Xethanol officials reported this week that the plant has now exceeded its rated capacity by 20 percent due to engineering and technical improvements undertaken by the company’s Iowa-based management team.

Xethanol will continue to increase the plant’s output by installing new technologies during the first half of 2006, chairman and CEO Christopher d’Arnaud-Taylor said.

“We are presently in the process of selecting an engineering firm to expand the plant’s nameplate production capacity to over 12 million gallons of ethanol per year,” d’Arnaud-Taylor added.

—–

To see more of The Gazette, or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://www.gazetteonline.com.

Copyright (c) 2006, The Gazette, Cedar Rapids, Iowa

Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News.

For information on republishing this content, contact us at (800) 661-2511 (U.S.), (213) 237-4914 (worldwide), fax (213) 237-6515, or e-mail reprints@krtinfo.com.