Osage BioEnergy to Open Largest Barley Ethanol Plant in U.S.

Editor’s Note: this is a guest post by Adam Shake

Osage BioEnergy announced that it will break ground next month on its Appomattox Bio Energy plant, a 65 Mgy (Million Gallons per Year) barley ethanol plant that will be the largest in the US, using barley as a feedstock.

Barley is a winter crop that can be double cropped with soybeans, and produces a high quality meal in addition to fuel ethanol.

The Appomattox Bio Energy (ABE) facility is projected to use regionally grown barley as the primary raw material.  Why Barley? Barley is a moderate to high yield winter crop and can be grown in double crop systems with other food crops such as soybeans.

In an attempt to possibly allay “food for fuel” critics, Osage BioEnergy plans on using a 3-in-one approach:

• Cash crops for farmers
• Animal Feedstock and
• fuel for cars

• » See also: US Energy and Ag Departments Providing $6.3M for Specialized Biofuels Research
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The Virginia Department of Environmental Quality has issued the Air Quality Permit for the ABE facility and supports the facility start-up for the second quarter of 2010, which coincides with the barley harvest.

Groundbreaking for the facility is scheduled for Friday, October 3, 2008.

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Sources: Osage BioEnergy and BioFuels Digest
Image Credit: Wikipedia

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