Work on an ethanol plant at the Ports of Indiana-Mount Vernon is moving ahead now that the project has received a green light from Indiana environmental officials.
Aventine Renewable Energy Inc., a Pekin, Ill.-based company, is hoping to begin production at the Posey County river port facility by late 2008. The Indiana Department of Environmental Management issued an air pollution permit Friday that allows construction to proceed and Aventine announced Monday that it has given contractor Kiewit Energy Company the order to proceed.
The permit will allow the facility to eventually produce up to 226 million gallons per year of denatured fuel-grade ethanol. The initial phase of construction will allow for a 113-million-gallon production capacity.
The permit was not unexpected. Site preparation work began earlier this summer and a written statement from Aventine this week noted the company has already spent $52.4 million on the project. The site is on 116 acres leased from the Ports of Indiana. Company officials said they chose the Mount Vernon location because of its existing road, rail and river dock infrastructure and its access to the Mississippi, Cumberland and Tennessee rivers via its position on the Ohio River.
Aventine's plant is a joint venture with Consolidated Grain and Barge, which already has operations at the Mount Vernon port. Under an agreement signed last year, Consolidated agreed to provide the corn for the ethanol. It will also be responsible for marketing for export a coproduct from the ethanol-making process called dry distillers grain with solubles used as a high-nutrient livestock feed. Consolidated also will be responsible for loading the ethanol and feed product at the site.
"Our Mount Vernon location is one of the premier locations for ethanol production and shipment in the United States," said Ron Miller, Aventine's president and chief executive officer.
Aventine is one of three proposed ethanol plants for Posey County. Another, which would be operated by Abengoa near West Franklin, Ind., has already received a pollution permit.