Green Plains bolsters ethanol capacity with purchase

It has been reported Green Plains Renewable Energy (GPRE) is to purchase a Nebraska ethanol plant, loading and storage facility.

The plant has been idle for 12 months but GPRE will purchase it for $15 million (€11.4 million) and hopes to restart it before August.

The Omaha-based ethanol producer has signed a purchase agreement to buy the membership interests of Choice Ethanol Holdings, which owns the former Nedak Ethanol plant in Nebraska. The storage and loading facility is located about 15 miles east of the plant.

GPRE  believes the acquisition will add about 50 million gallons of operating capacity to the company's annual production capacity of 740 million gallons.

‘The plant meets our acquisition criteria and we have a deep understanding of this technology, size and geographic area,’ says GPRE CEO Todd Becker. ‘We believe we can rapidly improve the overall performance of this plant.’