Ethanol plant auctioned in North Carolina

A $100 million (€70 million) ethanol plant located in Hoke County, North Carolina, US, will be put up for auction on 24 August after Clean Burn Fuels filed for bankruptcy.

The auction start price has not been disclosed.

Clean Burn Fuels originally filed for permission to build the plant in 2005. By 2007 it had been awarded $35 million from the US Department of Agriculture (USDA), in addition to a bank loan and funding from private investors.

The plant was expected to begin producing 60 million gallons of ethanol by mid-2008 but ongoing problems meant the plant's opening was delayed until Q2 2010. However in March 2011, less than 12 months since production began, rising corn prices forced the facility into temporary closure.

Despite plans to resume production later this year, the plant failed to reopen.