Biogas-powered ethanol plant in Nebraska set for restart

The company based in Kansas City, Missouri, said yesterday it has purchased with its affiliates the assets of the bankrupt E3BioFuels – Mead LLC.The operations have been financially restructured to operate profitably, and SBV said it is now seeking the necessary permits to begin ramping the facility up for production in 2011.

SBV chief executive Amit Raizada said: “This deal is unique in that we were able to secure a super senior investment and make the company healthy again. We solved an extremely complicated problem and still positioned our capital on top of the stack. Although these deals are difficult to accomplish, they are our trademark.”

Dennis Langley, former Chairman and CEO of E3 Mead, said: “Without SBV’s expertise in deal structuring and negotiations, this deal would not have gotten done. This is a win for the plant, a win for SBV and a win for the industry.”

Genesis

The $80 million Mead plant, called the Genesis Complex by previous owners E3BioFuels, used biomethane captured from agricultural waste as an energy source to produce ethanol from corn.

The anaerobic digestion system “virtually eliminates” the plant’s use of fossil fuels, with feedstock for the biogas production coming from 28,000 head of cattle, who feed on distillers grain by-product from the ethanol production process.

When it was formally launched in June 2007, E3Biofuels said the plant produced 46 units of energy for every unit of energy derived from fossil fuels, compared to a three-to-one ratio of conventional ethanol plants at the time.

The facility began operations in spring 2007 with a 25 million gallon ethanol production capacity, but the plant suffered a string of mechanical problems and a depressed ethanol market, leading to E3BioFuels filing for bankruptcy in November 2007.

source: brighterenergy