Central States Enterprises plans ethanol plant in Montpelier
Central States Enterprises has announced plans to build a new corn ethanol facility which will be located next its present grain terminal near Montpelier.
According to a press release issued by the company over the weekend to the Muncie Star Press, the $150 million project will provide 200 jobs during construction and will create about 40 new permanent jobs when in operation. It addition to being among the largest facilities of its type in the U.S., the plant will employ the newest, state-of-the-art technology available to the industry.
The new facility will use about 41 million bushels of corn annually, and produce 100 to 110 million gallons of ethanol and 376,000 tons of distillers dried grains, a high quality feed ingredient fed to livestock and poultry, according to the company’s statement.
Central States currently operates a large grain storage and railroad shipping facility on the west edge of Montpelier. That facility was built in 1999 and has undergone several expansions since then.
Quoted in the Muncie Star-Press, Montpelier Mayor Jim McPherson said the announcement was good news for the town.
“I’m tickled to death that they have made it public and that they are going to do it,” he said Saturday. “Montpelier has been very slow in economic development in industry. With this announcement hopefully we have turned the corner. This will be nothing but a plus for us,” McPherson told the Muncie newspaper.
In a statement by Richard Shura, president of Central States, he said, “In the mid-1990s we considered a variety of sites in Indiana for the construction of a new terminal grain facility. We were quite impressed with the local support for agri-business at that time. The area’s ongoing support has been critical in our decision to build once again in Montpelier and Blackford County.”
Central States Enterprises, with headquarters in Heathrow, Fla., is a privately owned agricultural company established in Fort Wayne in 1969. Central States provides grain handling and grain merchandising services and produces and distributes animal feed products to a diversified customer base in North America.
Growmark, a diversified farmer-owned cooperative based in Bloomington, Ill., also invested in the local plant.
Bill Davisson, Growmark’s chief executive officer, said his company has been marketing ethanol-blended fuels for over 20 years, and demand for the product continues to grow.
“An investment in the production of ethanol is a natural extension of our marketing efforts,” he said.
Five of Indiana’s six total ethanol refineries opened in 2007 — including POET Biorefining in Portland and Central Indiana Ethanol in Marion — and six more are scheduled to open this year — including Indiana Bio-Energy in Bluffton, POET Biorefining in Alexandria, and Cardinal Ethanol east of Winchester.