Ethanol facility grows in Iowa

A new facility designed to produce 110- million gallons of ethanol per year is coming up in the fields of Hartley, IA.

VeraSun Energy Corp., one of the largest producers of ethanol in the country, is constructing the new plant, which is scheduled to begin production in the first quarter of 2008, according to the company.

Once in operation, the facility is expected to process more than 39- million bushels of corn annually and employ about 50 workers. It will also produce a second bi-product, about 350,000 tons of dried distillers grains, every year.

VeraSun already has two ethanol producing facilities in operation and has others under construction in Charles City, IA and Welcome, MN. When they are all on-line, the company will have a total production capacity of about 560-million gallons per year.

VeraSun markets E85, a blend of 85% ethanol and 15% gasoline for Flexible Fuel Vehicles. The fuel is now available at more than 80 retail locations.

The United States consumes an average of 20 million barrels of fuel everyday, according to a 2004 U.S. Department of Energy survey, most of it for transportation. Currently, about 60% of the fuel comes from foreign countries.