AE Biofuel restarts 55mgy ethanol plant

The ethanol subsidiary of biofuels firm AE Biofuels – AE Advanced Fuels Keyes – has resumed operations at its $130 million (€92 million) 55 million gallon a year ethanol production facility in Keyes, California, US.

Cilion finished building the plant in November 2008 but it was closed in early 2009 due to 'technical and market issues'. In March 2010 AE Keyes gained possession of the facility after it agreed to a project agreement with Cilion, signed a facility lease for up to five years and funded $8 million of the financing to retrofit and restart the plant.
Around 50 fulltime positions have now become available at the plant.

'The retrofit and restart of the Keyes plant was accomplished by a talented, dedicated management and operations team that has been expanded to more than 50 members,' says Eric McAfee, chairman and CEO of AE Biofuels. 'We're very pleased that the AE Keyes plant is now fully operations and delivering product to our California biofuels and animal feed customers.'

The California Energy Commission (CEC) is supporting the project and recently awarded AE Keyes with a $1.88 million grant that will go towards commercialising AE Biofuels' patent-pending, enzyme-based, cellulosic ethanol production technology. The integrated cellulose/starch pre-commercial facility will be built nearby to the Keyes ethanol plant.