Grant of up to $30 million for biorefinery

The plant will be located in Springfield, Kentucky, USA and is estimated to
employ 93 people when operating at full capacity.

As part of the DOE proposal, the company’s rural community biorefinery
will be one of the first in the United States to utilise cellulose, such as
switch grass, corn cobs and corn stover, at raw material levels of up to 30%.
This will be converted to ethanol and other value-added products.

“The rural community biorefinery is truly a missionary of new
technologies. Cellulosic ethanol utilises raw materials which are readily
available and which alleviate the current demand for grain for ethanol
production. With commodity prices reaching an all time high and with ethanol
production forecast to account for 30% of the US corn harvest by 2010 we must
focus our attention on a sustainable path to alternative energies,” said Dr
Pearse Lyons, Alltech president.  

In addition to the above grant, the project has received an incentive
to the value of $8 million from the Kentucky Economic Development Finance
Authority (KEDFA).

The biorefinery will have an impact on Kentucky’s agricultural
production by housing dairy and beef cattle to be branded under the Kentucky
Proud label. Such actions could be a significant step toward addressing
Kentucky’s $250 million milk deficit and this concept has already drawn interest
from the Netherlands, Ireland, South Africa and China.

There is also a strong interest in setting up similar plants in which
pig production could participate.