Two ethanol plants backed by Sir Richard Branson’s Virgin Group have joined the marketing alliance of Pekin, Illinois’ Aventine Renewable Energy Holdings, Inc.

Aventine will market all of the ethanol produced by Indiana Bio-Energy of Bluffton, Indiana and Ethanol Grain Processors, LLC of Obion, Tennessee when the facilities are completed next year. Both are 100 million gallon per year nameplate facilities.

The majority investor for the two plants is VBV LLC, an affiliate of Sir Richard Branson’s Virgin Group and by Bioverda International Holdings Limited, a subsidiary of NTR plc of Dublin, Ireland. VBV is intended to be the vehicle through which Virgin and Bioverda make a number of investments in the biofuels sector.