Louis Dreyfus Corporation (LDC) has announced that its subsidiary Louis Dreyfus Commodities Grand Junction LLC (LD Grand Junction) acquired certain assets of Further Fuels LLC in connection with LD Grand Junction's plans to construct and operate a 110 million gallon per year ethanol plant located just north of Grand Junction. LD Grand Junction at the same time acquired the 240 acres of land on which the plant is to be built and entered into a design-build agreement for the construction of the plant.
"We are very excited about the prospects for our Grand Junction plant and gratified by the support we have received from Greene county and the state of Iowa." said Erik Anderson, LDC's president. "We look forward to working with the community and state and local officials in making the Grand Junction plant a reality and a success."
LD Grand Junction began earth works in July, 2007. Plant construction will commence in the first quarter of 2008 and the facility is expected to begin operation in the summer of 2009. When complete, the plant will process nearly 40 million bushels of corn per year, and produce approximately 325,0000 metric tons of distillers' grains as a feed product in addition to its ethanol output.
LDC's subsidiary Louis Dreyfus Agricultural Industries LLC currently is in the process of constructing an integrated soybean crush/biodiesel refinery at Claypool, IN. The Claypool plant is scheduled to come on line in the fall of 2007 and will have the capacity to produce more than 80 million gallons of biodiesel annually. LDC's subsidiary Elkhorn Valley Ethanol LLC is building a 50 million gallon per year ethanol plant in Norfolk, NE, with operations also scheduled to commence in the fall of 2007.
"The Grand Junction plant reinforces our commitment to the biofuels sector, and will become a strategic complement to our ethanol plant in Norfolk, NE, and our biodiesel plant in Claypool, IN," Anderson said. "We believe that the growth of alternative fuels will remain the compelling driver in U.S. and global agricultural markets in the foreseeable future. As such we are establishing a meaningful presence in the marketplace."
Louis Dreyfus Commodities and LD Grand Junction are part of the Louis Dreyfus Group. Louis Dreyfus is one of the world's oldest and largest merchandisers of grains and oilseeds, with companies operating in more than 50 countries. Louis Dreyfus Commodities has major oilseeds processing, sugar refining and ethanol production facilities in South America, and is developing additional biofuels assets in the United States. Louis Dreyfus Commodities North America operates export grain elevators in Houston, Beaumont (TX) and Seattle, with major U.S. trading offices located in Kansas City, Minneapolis, Memphis, and Wilton (CT). |
