KC Firm Buys Mead Ethanol Plant

Cindy Zimmerman

A Kansas City investment firm has purchased a bankrupt Nebraska ethanol plant with the goal of getting it back on line by next year. Spectrum Business Ventures (SBV) bought the assets in Chapter 11 bankruptcy of E3BioFuels in Mead, Nebraska, a patented, closed-loop ethanol production facility that both opened and subsequently shut down in 2007. According to a company release, …

Ethanol, Ethanol News

Closed Loop Plant Closing

Cindy Zimmerman

An innovative “closed loop” ethanol plant in Nebraska shut down last week as the company filed bankruptcy, according to a report in the Omaha World Herald. E3 BioFuels opened in June as a model for using energy from biogas derived from cattle manure and cellulosic biomass to power the plant. Manure from 28,000 head of cattle in a nearby feedlot …

Ethanol, Facilities, News

Nation’s First Closed-loop Ethanol Facility Plant Opens

John Davis

The nation’s first closed-loop ethanol facility has opened near Mead, Nebraska. Closed-loop means it has a cattle feedlot attached with an ethanol plant. The E3 BioFuels Genesis Plant uses the manure from feedlot’s 28,000 cattle manure and some cellulosic biomass to make a biogas in an anaerobic digester. That biogas powers the ethanol plant, and the ethanol by-product, distillers grain, …

Ethanol, News

Smells Like Money

Cindy Zimmerman

This week’s Associated Press Centerpiece report focuses on ethanol plants powered by manure and other waste material. Ranchers have long been fond of saying cattle manure smells like money. Now, folks in the business of making ethanol are smelling dollars too – in the methane gas emitted by manure at large cattle feedlots and dairies. The article looks at several …

Ethanol, News

Closing the Loop

Cindy Zimmerman

The first ethanol plant to operate without the use of fossil fuels is scheduled to begin production before the end of the year in Nebraska. E3 BioFuels has announced that the Genesis plant in Mead, Nebraska is “the first-ever closed-loop system for distilling commercial quantities of ethanol using methane gas recaptured from cow manure, instead of fossil fuels. This virtually …

Ethanol, News

Aventine Growing as Ethanol Marketer

Cindy Zimmerman

Aventine Renewable Energy recently signed an agreement with its 14th ethanol production plant to market their product. According to a company release, Aventine will market all fuel grade ethanol produced by E3 BioFuels in Mead, Nebraska. Aventine also has agreements with plants in Wisconsin, Illinois, South Dakota, Iowa, Kansas, Minnesota and Texas.

Ethanol