Green Plains Renewable Energy, Inc. has restarted their Central City, NE ethanol plant which was recently acquired by VeraSun.

“The Central City plant is on-line and operational after we made some necessary repairs and capital improvements to the plant,” said Todd Becker, Green Plains’ President and Chief Executive Officer. The Central City plant has been idle since November 2008.

The Central City site, along with another in Ord, were purchased from a lending group led by AgStar Financial Services for about $123.5 million. Green Plains took ownership of the plants during the VeraSun bankruptcy.

Based in Omaha, NE, Green Plains owns four ethanol plants in Iowa, Indiana, and Tennessee. It sells its own ethanol and markets ethanol for other producers. The company, founded in 2004, also owns grain storage facilities.