It looks like a 50-million-gallon-a-year ethanol plant is in the works at a site near Nevada, Missouri… just up the road from $90 million plant that will make soy-based biodiesel.
Officials with Ozark Ethanol LLC recently met with the Vernon County Commission and citizens to discuss the plant. According to this AP story in the Springfield News-Leader, not much officially is being said about the plant except a general location of where it will be built in Southwest Missouri:
But Vernon County Presiding Commissioner Bonnie McCord said the location being discussed is near the intersection of Missouri 43 and U.S. 54, which is just down the road from the soybean-diesel plant now being built by a company called Prairie Pride.
For both companies, location is part of the attraction.
Vernon County lies in west-central Missouri on the Kansas border, with roads and rail lines that would easily connect the plants with farmers in both states supplying the corn and soybeans.
But it’s not just location, location, location that’s driving the two plants:
Gary Marshall, chief executive officer with the Missouri Corn Growers Association, said four ethanol plants are operating in Missouri right now, and five are under construction.
“The demand is very, very strong and continues to be very strong,” he said of ethanol.