March 02, 2007

New steps taken with state's first ethanol plant

Editor's note: This is the first in a four-part series exploring Arizona's options regarding alternative fuels and other renewable energy sources, and what that means for Maricopa.

Thinning oil reserves and relations with the Middle East being tenuous at best, over the years have made the urgent search for alternative ways of fueling the U.S. a race against the clock.

The Bush Administration has recently become one of the strongest advocates for the push of research and the construction of alternative fuel plants, such as ethanol plants, across the US. Though some are still critical, perhaps seeing the probe as futile as the all-water route through North America in the 18th century, many more see hope in the method of ethanol fuel processing. That is evidently why the city of Maricopa has welcomed Pinal Energy LLC, Arizona's first ethanol plant; it is an $85 million construction project started last June and is located off of the Maricopa-Casa Grande Highway.

Pinal Energy is to be a dry mill ethanol plant/distillery, extracting alcohol from regionally grown grains such as corn or grain sorghum. Natural gas is used for the plant's boilers to produce both motor fuel-grade ethanol and its byproduct, a cow feed cornmeal - enough to feed at least 250,000 cattle a day. Not only will the cornmeal production benefit local cattle farmers in saving money on rising corn prices, but will also bolster local Arizona farm economy. The plant will need 19 million bushels of corn or grain a year (56 pounds a bushel) - which the plant's manager, Brian Pasbrig, hopes to buy locally as much as possible - to produce its annual quota of 50 million gallons of ethanol.

"We are providing a local source of animal feed. That's a gain. We will buy Milo [grain] locally as often as possible. So, we're giving the farmer an option on what he can grow. And we think we can make the economics work for the farmers, so that they can make more money....that's part of the reason why we do this. It's not just to be environmentally friendly with our fuels, but it's to help the American economy, too," Pasbrig says.

The ethanol will then be sold to Arizona and California gas fuel markets for either gas blending (most gas stations sell fuel with a 10 or higher percentage of ethanol), or for E85, a fuel blend of 85 percent ethanol, and only 15 percent gasoline for modern flex-fuel engine cars.

"We have very regional priorities," Pasbrig adds. "Our desire is to ship everything we make within Arizona."

Pasbrig has been in the field of ethanol production for 13 years, and has seen the incredible steps technology has taken in his line of work and what it has made possible. He began in a time when there were only 20 plants running in the US and producing only 20 million gallons a year - which was pretty impressive for the time.

"Today there's 110 operating at a much bigger capacity. Today we're 50 million gallons a year at this plant, and we're average," he commented. Broken down, that's 150,000 gallons a day.

"It's the first ethanol plant here in the state of Arizona, and I think we're so blessed and lucky to have it in our city of Maricopa," the plant's Financial Positions manager, Rebecca Molus, says. She is a resident of Maricopa and is one of the eventual staff members to be hired in order to keep the plant running 24/7. "That's extremely exciting, and it's nice to be a part of something from the ground floor."

When completed in May or June of this year, the 24-acre plant next to the feedlots will bring 45 more jobs to the city, as well as various ancillary positions in maintenance, trucking and other labor. That's not even counting the hundreds hired to mold the plant's multiple-story structures, to sold pipes or build brick walls over the past year while under construction.

To find out more on the plant and its production, visit their website at www.pinalenergyllc.com, or contact Pasbrig at (520) 494-2400.

This series continues next week, providing further information regarding ethanol, its production and its uses, and its affect on Arizona.

©Casa Grande Valley Newspapers Inc. 2007