A third ethanol plant is being proposed for Posey County, this time by St. Louis-based Abengoa Bioenergy and close to Vanderburgh County.
The company is seeking to build the plant on privately owned farmland at the intersection of West Franklin and Darnell School roads, just north of where ConAgra once unsuccessfully sought to locate a soybean processing facility.
The proposed development has been proceeding with none of the fanfare of the other two ethanol plants currently in the works. On Monday, an Abengoa official did not return a telephone call seeking more information about the proposed project.
Sally Denning, administrative director of the Posey County Chamber of Commerce, said she was not aware of the proposed facility.
However, a petition to rezone more than 51 acres of the proposed site from agriculture to manufacturing was filed with the Posey County Area Plan Commission on Dec. 11, said Area Plan Director Donna Butler. The rest of the property is already zoned manufacturing, Butler said.
The rezoning petition will be considered on Jan. 11. Posey County Commissioners will have final approval. The company will need to seek a special-use variance from the county's Board of Zoning Appeals, Butler said.
The facility will be powered by two natural gas-fired boilers, according to its draft air pollution permit, on file at Alexandrian Public Library in Mount Vernon, and also through the Web site for the Indiana Department of Environmental Management. A public meeting on the proposed permit will be Thursday at the library at 5:30 p.m..
Two other ethanol plants have already been proposed for Posey County, both closer to Mount Vernon. They are ASAlliances Biofuels LLC and Aventine Renewable Energy Inc. in partnership with Consolidated Grain & Barge at the Southwind Maritime Centre on the Ohio River. However, the state's environmental agency has only received permit applications from Aventine and Abengoa, said Rob Elstro, an IDEM spokesman.
Elstro said that while ASAlliances hasn't submitted its proposed permit yet, it has had preliminary discussions with state environmental officials. ASAlliances would be located west of Mount Vernon next to Cargill grain company (its partner in the project) on Indiana 69 near GE Plastics.
Ethanol is an alcohol-based alternative fuel typically made from corn, grain or agricultural waste.