From cow manure to ethanol: Innovative Nebraska plant sold

A private Missouri investment firm wants to reopen an innovative Nebraska ethanol plant that failed on its promise to produce the fuel commercially while using cow manure as a power source.

The Lincoln Journal Star reports that Spectrum Business Ventures Inc of Kansas City, Missouri, has purchased the E3 BioFuels plant near Mead in eastern Nebraska, and the company is planning to reopen the plant next year under the name AltEn Opportunity I.

When it started, the plant was one of the first in the nation to use methane gas from cow manure at a nearby feedlot to power its ethanol production.

But a boiler explosion in 2007 delayed the commercial ethanol production.

The plant shut down later that year after the E3 BioFuels company filed for bankruptcy protection.

The plant was supposed to be the first commercial operation to make ethanol without using any significant amount of fossil fuels for heat. It was designed to use methane from manure and corn cellulose to make biogas.

Experts say burning methane instead of natural gas or coal cuts the amount of greenhouse gases released into the environment, lowering the plant emissions.

The plant, which is next to a 28,000-head cattle feedlot, is designed to be able to produce 25 million gallons a year of ethanol.

Spectrum CEO Amit Raizada said in a statement that production is expected to resume sometime in 2011 after the required permits are obtained.

- AP