State's ethanol surge to level off, expert says

The Star Press.com (Indiana)

Will we now see a similar rush to build ethanol plants that convert corn stalks to fuel?
By SETH SLABAUGH • seths@muncie.gannett.com • September 11, 2008

ALEXANDRIA -- After the opening of three new Indiana ethanol plants between now and late October -- plus another one next year -- the corn ethanol surge in this state will level off, a Purdue University expert predicts.

"It all adds up to a billion gallons of ethanol production (capacity annually)," ag economist Chris Hurt told farmers during a Purdue Ag Outlook meeting on Wednesday. "That's what the governor talked about two years ago. So, wow, we're a big part of it."

Scheduled to begin producing ethanol in the near future are POET, North Manchester; Indiana Bio-Energy, Bluffton, and Cardinal Ethanol in Randolph County, followed next summer by Aventine Renewable Energy in southwestern Indiana near Evansville.

That will bring to a dozen the total number of ethanol plants in Indiana. They will require 350 million bushels of corn -- about 35 percent of Indiana's total corn crop -- to operate at capacity.

Nationally, ethanol production capacity is approaching 10 billion gallons a year, and is expected to exceed 13.5 billion gallons next year. The federal government has mandated the use of 15 billion gallons of corn ethanol by 2015.

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