|
 |
|
|
|||
|
 |
|
Nov. 9, 2018 Des Moines Register reports: The DuPont cellulosic ethanol plant in Nevada has been purchased by a German biofuels company's U.S. subsidiary. VERBIO North America Corp., the Michigan-based subsidiary of VERBIO Vereinigte BioEnergie AG, will purchase the next-generation Iowa ethanol plant and a portion of its corn stover inventory, VERBIO and DuPont said in a joint statement Thursday. No purchase price was disclosed. The deal is expected to close in November, the companies said. VERBIO plans to install equipment to produce renewable natural gas made from corn stover and other cellulosic crop residue at the site. DuPont had begun making ethanol from corn cobs and stalks before announcing a year ago it would close the plant and sell it. It laid off 90 workers. DuPont, which had merged with Dow Chemical, said the cellulosic ethanol plant no longer fit with the company's strategic plan. VERBIO said the Nevada plant will be its third production facility devoted to cellulosic technology. In 2014, the company commissioned its first facility in Schwedt, Germany, and its second facility in Pinnow, Germany is currently being commissioned. VERBIO says it is a leading manufacturer in the German biomethane and biofuels market running four production facilities producing around 27 million gallons of renewable natural gas, 140 million gallons of biodiesel and 87 million gallons of ethanol each year. The company said it focuses on developing and installing new technologies to produce first- and second-generation biofuels from biomass and crop residues. VEREBIO said the Nevada plant offers "excellent infrastructure" to build its first renewable natural gas facility outside Germany. "We can use part of the installed equipment for our production and there is a solid base of local farmers from whom to procure the raw materials," said said Claus Sauter, CEO of VERBIO. "Once the plant is in operation, it offers the Nevada ... community new agricultural revenue streams, new employment opportunities and new sources of tax revenues," Sauter said. VERBIO said it plans to start construction of the renewable natural gas operation in the spring of 2019 and begin commercial production of renewable transportation fuel by summer 2020. Nevada officials have expressed concern that a new buyer would purchase hundreds of thousands corn stover bales stored at 23 locations around Story and neighboring counties. The corn cobs, husks and stalks create a huge fire liability for the city and county. The merged DowDuPont plans to spin-off three businesses: agriculture, material sciences and specialty products in 2019. The merged corporation is the parent of DuPont Pioneer, a Johnston seed giant that employs about 2,600 in Iowa. Tweet |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|||||||||||||
