Let There be Ethanol!
Sunoco's ethanol manufacturing facility in Volney recently received its first shipments of corn and has started production.
The first shipment of ethanol was produced in late June.
“We’ll be slowly increasing production over the next week or so,” said Thomas Golembeski, Sunoco spokesperson. “At this point, we’re being cautious because we had to invest a lot in the facility and do significant capital work to get the plant to the point where it can start up and begin operations.”
“We want to make sure and be thorough in assessing its performance before we push production even higher,” he added.
When at full operational capacity, the plant has the ability to use 40 million bushels of corn to produce in excess of 100 million gallons of ethanol each year.
The plant is running on a 24-7 basis.
Staffing at the facility includes more than 50 full-time manufacturing positions, as well as a 10-person management team.
Golembeski said Sunoco invested approximately $25 million to get the plant on-line, a figure that it had originally anticipated.
Former owner Northeast Biofuels applied for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in January of 2009 following a failed attempt at establishing its own ethanol plant at the site. Sunoco acquired the $200 million facility last April through an auction process.
Sunoco paid $8.5 million for the former Miller Brewery property located in Riverview Business Park in Volney.
“We used our in-house technical expertise as well as hired a contractor who specializes in ethanol manufacturing to help us improve the processes and install the necessary equipment and make the changes needed to get the plant in operation,” Golembeski said.
“This is a big win for everybody who has been involved in the project,” he noted. “It’s been a long time coming and people there are feeling very proud that the plant is in operation and everything is going well.”
Meanwhile, carbon dioxide from the plant’s fermentation process will be cleaned and sold to the beverage industry, and it was earlier reported that Linde Gas will be handling that process.
However, Golembeski said he did not know the status of Linde at this point.
In terms of feedstock, Golembeski said Sunoco will “want to source as much local corn as possible to make ethanol.”
“If we are unable to source all our corn needs from local growers, we will have to bring it in from elsewhere,” he said.
