By CAROL WERSICH, Evansville Courier & Press staff writer
cwersich@evansville.net
The $125 million ethanol plant proposed for Posey County will be powered by natural gas, not coal.
David Black, representing the plant developer, Dallas-based ASAlliances Holdings, LP, said natural gas was chosen for its cleaner emissions and because it's easier to acquire permits for its use.
"We believe the coal technology used in the (ethanol) process is still fairly new," he said.
Down the road, if the quality of the coal technology improves and permits become easier to get, ASAlliances may use it. For now, ASAlliances is more comfortable with natural gas, Black added.
The site for the proposed plant is adjacent to Cargill grain company, located along old Indiana 69 (formerly Uniontown Road) on the edge of Mount Vernon, Ind. The site sits near the GE Plastics plant.
Black said Cargill will supply 100 percent of the corn, which will be a key ingredient in the ethanol manufacturing process. Cargill currently is in touch with area farmers about increasing corn crops to maintain the plant, he said.
Cargill is also designated to provide the natural gas procurement as well as marketing and transportation services.
Once negotiations are complete and all necessary permits are acquired, ASAliances expects to begin construction this fall. The plant will be fully operational 18 to 24 months later, according to Black.
The plant is expected to employ around 50 full-time workers, all of whom will be trained over three months at the site, he said.
Skills required will range from maintenance and laboratory technician to plant operators.
ASAlliances Holdings is a merchant banking and investment firm, which is focused on partnering with leading companies to develop, implement and manage proprietary strategic initiatives.
The holding company - via Americas Strategic Alliances, a Dallas merchant banking and investments group - formed ASAlliances Biofuels LLC, last year.
Black is president of the Americas Strategic Alliances. He said the biofuels company currently has three, 100 million-gallon ethanol plants under construction.
The locations include:
- Linden, Ind., about 45 miles northwest of Indianapolis.
Bloomingburg, Ohio, about 50 miles southwest of Columbus.
All three plants are due for completion in 2007, Black said.
ASAlliances also plans to start construction this fall on an ethanol plant at Tipton, Ind., about 50 miles north of Indianapolis, he said.
According to Americas Strategic Alliances Web site, this past February Challenger Capital Group, Ltd., a Dallas-based full-service investment bank, secured $148 million in equity and subordinate debt for ASAlliances Biofuels to help fund the company's construction of the large-scale ethanol production plants.
The funding represented one of the largest ethanol transactions to date.
Private equity participants in the deal included American Capital Strategies, Laminar Direct Capital, US Renewables Group and Midwest First Financial, the report said.
Cargill will supply each of the ASAlliances ethanol plants in Ohio, Nebraska and Tipton and Linden, Ind., as well as the Posey County location.
Fagen Inc. will oversee the design, engineering and construction for each project. United Bio Energy Inc., will manage each plant operations.