Alternative Energy Sources Inc. (AENS) announced Monday that it has plans to construct a 110-million-gallon ethanol plant in Kankakee, Ill. On Aug. 15, AENS had announced plans to build its first ethanol plant in Central Iowa.
Construction is to begin in six to nine months, with operation scheduled for the fall of 2008. The facility will provide jobs for 45 to 55 people with a payroll between $2.5 and $3.5 million.
The plant will use more than 35 million bushels of corn annually, and will be a major consumer of corn grown in Kankakee and Iroquois Counties.
The Kankakee plant, 65 miles south of Chicago, will be next to the Canadian National/Illinois Central main railroad line, which links the Gulf states with Canada and intersects with east-west rail lines crossing the Midwest; and is adjacent to Interstate 57, providing truck transport to Midwestern markets.
AENS has optioned the entire 248-acre Kankakee Industrial Park next to a newly permitted regional sanitary landfill. "In addition to giving us the large footprint needed for flexibility in plant design, this will allow us to acquire landfill methane gas for our operations at one-third the cost of natural gas on a Btu-adjusted basis," said Lee Blank, AENS executive vice president and chief operating officer.
AENS also plans to build additional plants in the Midwest as well as the first cellulosic ethanol facility in the Eastern United States. All of the plants are projected to produce about 100 carloads of ethanol per week.