Nebraska ethanol plant goes to auction

Renewable fuel project developer Altra’s half-completed ethanol plant in Carleton, Neb., is up for grabs to the highest bidder.

Minnesota-based asset recovery firm Maas Companies said it plans to auction the company’s unfinished plant, expected to have the capacity to produce 110 million gallons per year when completed.

Bids for the entire facility and its 268 acres of land need to be submitted before Oct. 13 at 5 p.m., after which time the facility is expected to be sold in piecemeal to potential buyers at the site and live via the Internet on Oct. 28.

The company’s subsidiary Altra Nebraska, which filed for bankruptcy in August, started construction in 2006 on the facility, expected to be one of the state’s largest ethanol production plants. But work stopped in November 2007 because the company couldn’t obtain required financing.

The facility was expected to add 50 permanent jobs to the area and utilize 36 million bushels of corn a year for feedstock.

The plant’s sale is reportedly expected to help meet about half of its estimated $100 million in debt.

In 2006, Panda Ethanol also said it planned to build a 100 million gallon-per-year ethanol plant in Lincoln County, Neb. (see Panda Ethanol to build 100M-gallon ethanol plant in Nebraska).

But plans were canceled in 2007 because of market conditions. In July 2009, Panda’s stockholders approved dissolution and a plan of liquidation (see Cow-powered Panda makes plans to dissolve, liquidate).

Makers of grain-based ethanol, despite considerable subsidies in the United States, are struggling to produce ethanol profitably in the face of low petroleum prices and increased recognition of edible feedstocks' value for food and carbon sequestration.

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