The first large-scale ethanol plant in Texas opened this week in Hereford.

White Energy president Kevin Kuykendall, says the plant will provide significant economic benefits to the panhandle economy and will support both the farmers and the cattle ranchers in the area.

The 100 million gallon capacity plant will use 36 million bushels of corn and milo annually. A majority of the corn will be purchased from Archer-Daniels-Midland, while the milo will be purchased from the local Herford Grain Co-op. White Energy’s plant will produce 833-thousand tons of distillers wet grain – to feed the areas more than 2-million head of cattle.

Built by Fagen, Inc., the facility earned recognition as Project of the Year by the Texas Renewable Energy Industries Association because of its significant expansion of the production of bio-fuels in Texas.

White Energy also owns and operates a 50-million-gallon ethanol plant in Russell, Kansas and has another 110 million gallon per year plant under construction in Plainview, Texas.