Orion to build Texas renewable fuels complex

26 March 2008 14:08  [Source: ICIS news]

TORONTO (ICIS news)--Orion Ethanol has acquired an idled corn fructose wet mill in Dimmitt, Texas, for $2.5m (€1.6m) to convert and expand into an integrated 82m gal/year (310m litre/year) renewable fuels complex within three years, the US producer said on Tuesday.

 

In a first phase, Orion will convert the wet mill into a 60m gal/year ethanol plant and a 10m gal/year edible oil extraction facility.

 

In later phases it would add a 10m gal/year cellulose-to-ethanol process, a 12m gal/year biodiesel plant, a 25,000 tonne/year yeast plant and a 60-75 megawatt (MW) wind and biomethane power plant, it said.

 

"(The) Dimmitt wet milling facility is the ideal platform on which we plan to develop an integrated renewable fuels campus that will include production of cellulosic ethanol, biodiesel, biomethane and wind power,” said Orion chairman Patrick Barker.

 

At an estimated $1.10/gal, the capital cost of converting and retrofitting an existing corn fructose facility was considerably lower than building a greenfield ethanol facility, compared with $2.20/gal for a new dry mill and $3.50/gal for a new wet mill, Barker said.

 

In addition, a wet mill offered a wider range of valuable by-products than a traditional dry mill ethanol plant, he said.

 

Separately, Orion also announced a study for an enhanced oil recovery project in Kansas where it has a 55m gal/year ethanol plant.

 

Oil well operators could use the carbon dioxide (CO2) by-product from ethanol plants to extract up to 60% more oil from reserves, Orion said.

 

($1 = €0.64)

 

Bookmark Simon Robinson's Big Biofuels Blog for some independent thinking on biofuels

By: Stefan Baumgarten
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