September 16, 2005

Would turn corn into fuel to enhance gasoline supply.

FLORENCE - The Pinal County Planning and Zoning Commission on Thursday saw a proposal for an ethanol plant in the Maricopa area, designed to augment fuel supplies.

Arizona Grain Inc. is seeking approval for an industrial-use permit to establish the ethanol plant on a 45-acre parcel southeast of Maricopa. The plant would be located behind an established feed processing plant off Maricopa-Casa Grande Highway near Fuqua Road.

Work-study sessions are done for the benefit of applicants seeking zone changes or permits to see if there are any major concerns that need to be addressed before the project is placed on the commissioners' agenda for recommendations of approval or denial to the Board of Supervisors.

In presenting Arizona Grain's case, Ole Solberg, a Casa Grande-based chemical engineer, explained the process of turning corn into ethyl alcohol: "This project is to make ethanol, which is ethyl alcohol for use as a fuel additive in Phoenix, Tucson and Southern California markets. The proposed plant is going to be right behind the current grain processing plant. It will take the corn, grind it up, mix it with yeast and 48 hours later have a kind of beer, but it's not beer. It's kind of like the weak solution, and then it goes through the still and out pops the end product out of the back end of it, and there'll be a tank farm where it can be loaded and hauled off."

Solberg said the spent corn, after the starch has been converted into alcohol, makes a pretty good cattle feed and would be sold to the local dairies and feedlots. It can be in the form of either a wet type feed or a dry feed, and it would be sold as a bi-product locally.

Size may double

"Right now, the plant design is for 50 million gallons a year," Solberg said, "and we'll probably be able to run about 60 million, and it's also designed to expand up to 100 million gallons a year. There will be some truck traffic with the deliveries to the markets. It can be loaded out by rail, but most likely the majority will be trucked out. There is a railroad spur at Arizona Grain right now.

"It will take about a year to construct with 175 to 200 employees during the construction phase. Afterwards, there will probably be about 35 to 45 to operate the plant. It will be on the technical side, so there will be some very good-paying jobs at the plant."

Solberg cautioned that there would be some potential emissions, and there are controls that would qualify it as a "minor source" under Pinal County regulations. It would not be in the major category. It would have an afterburner, which is kind of like a catalytic converter on most cars, and that would take care of the majority of emissions coming out of the plant.

"The area at this point in time is pretty much industrial," said Solberg. "The nearest houses are pretty far away. There's an industry next door (feedlot) that might present more pressing concerns when it comes to odors. There are these types of plants in the Midwest, and most are right on the edge of town.
"They will prefer to get as much corn as they can locally, but there's not enough being grown in Arizona to supply the need."

John Skelley, president Arizona Grain, also addressed the commission and said: "This plant will be using about 18 million bushels in the first stage, before build-out it will go to 100 million gallons, and at that point, we'll need 36 million bushels. Right now the state grows around 5 million bushels of corn, primarily in the Willcox area. Will farmers grow it? It depends on the price. We have a lot of competing crops that farmers look at such as cotton, alfalfa and wheat, so it will be a matter of price.

Farm market

"We would like to think that this will create a new market for some of our farmers. It's a good summer crop, and Arizona leads the nation in corn yields, but I won't kid you and tell you that we'll get 18 million bushels of corn grown in Arizona. Unless we have a jump in the corn price, I can't see that many farmers converting over to corn.

"We have a 100-car facility at our present site, and we bring in about 200 train cars every week that supplies the feedlots and dairy industries in central Arizona.

"We don't have any opposition. We've been working with the Rancho El Dorado people, since they have land all around us. We're going to take their CEO back to the Midwest to see an ethanol plant in a couple weeks that sits right next to a town in Iowa. The state of Iowa produces about 1.5 billion gallons of ethanol. We're being very proactive to try to be good neighbors. We think we're good neighbors now, but this plant is going to be a very clean plant."

Skelley likened the odors to those found at a bakery and commented: "If you like the smell of a bakery, then you'll like this place. You'll smell the yeast that's fermenting the starches. I enjoy going through these plants, because they smell good. This is not a refinery. This is a big brewery.

"We'd like to get this moving as soon as possible, because as many of you know, we have an oxygenated fuel requirement here in Arizona that runs from November to March. If we can get this plant on line by next November, we can hit that better market time period when we're using a lot of oxygenated fuels in Arizona. It's very important to us that we get this started.

"The U.S. Government is very much behind the ethanol industry. They've mandated 7.5 billion gallons of ethanol usage per year by 2012. They really see it as a way to replace fossil fuels. Another product that's coming along is the E-85, and that would be 85 percent ethanol and 15 percent gasoline, and that gives you a real choice of products to put in your car, and more and more cars are coming out with flexible engines that can burn either fuel, so we're real excited about that potential in the future too."

When asked about benefits to the county, Skelley replied: "The revenues from this plant should be in the area of $110 million in gross revenues, and we'll have a payroll of a little over $1 million. We'll be paying our fair share of property taxes, but the revenues should be in the area of $110 million."

Don Gabrielson, Pinal County Air Quality director, and Ken Buchanan, assistant county manager, addressed the commissioners and spoke very highly about the plant. Buchanan said that he had made a trip to Wisconsin with the Arizona Grain people to visit an ethanol plant, and he said that the plant they visited was directly across the road from an assisted living facility, a nursing home, and he could barely detect any emissions.

The attitude of the commissioners was very positive, and the issue will be placed on the Oct. 20 agenda.
The commissioners forwarded the following requests to the Board of Supervisors with favorable recommendations:

-- A zone change and planned-area-development overlay district by Ham Mesa LLC to develop the 4,762-lot Siena development on a 1,407-acre parcel in Hidden Valley, southwest corner of Miller and Amarillo Valley roads.

-- A zone change and PAD overlay district by Craig Pouty to develop the 960-lot Vintage Estates on a 320-acre parcel west of Maricopa.

-- A zone change and PAD overlay district by Christopher Lenz to develop the 2,076-lot Selma Ranch on a 643-acre parcel north of Eloy.

-- A tentative PAD plat by Centex Homes for Johnson Ranch Unit 30B, 52 lots on an 8-acre parcel in Johnson Ranch.

-- A tentative PAD plat by Centex Homes for Johnson Ranch Unit 32, 136 lots on a 21-acre parcel in Johnson Ranch.

-- A tentative PAD plat by Centex Homes for Johnson Ranch Units 37 and 38, 37 lots on a 7-acre parcel in Johnson Ranch.

-- A tentative PAD plat by Metropolitan Land Co. for Unit 2 at Magic Ranch, 146 lots on a 32-acre parcel in Magic Ranch.

A request for a tentative PAD plat by Charles Cotter for Brenner Pass Estates, 53 lots on a 100-acre parcel in the Brenner Pass area was continued to Nov. 17.

A request for a tentative PAD plat by Borgata at San Tan LLC, 209 lots on a 275-acre parcel in the San Tan Heights area, was continued to Oct. 20.

©Casa Grande Valley Newspapers Inc. 2005