Big Horn Basin Ethanol receives $45 million from Bronte Renewable in leaseback on 25 Mgy ethanol plant

In Montana, Big Horn Basin Ethanol announced a lease agreement with Bronte Renewable of Ontario to provided $45 million in financing. Under the agreement, BHBE will lease and operate the plant, which will be owned by Bronte. The 25 Mgy plant is scheduled to open in September 2009. He said the plant would produce up to 25 million gallons of ethanol a year.

Although Washington, Idaho, and Oregon had ranked in the top 20 in Oil Independence, Montana has lagged in biofuels capacity. The Northwest has been particularly focused on biodiesel, with the notable launch of the Imperium Renewables plant in Washington State. Last month, Allied Bio-Energies selected a site for a 10 Mgy biodiesel plant near Havre. The site was picked because it is near to major crop growing areas as well as the Northern Agricultural Research Center and Montana State University-Northern.

Recently, Targeted Growth and Green Earth Fuel formed a joint venture to develop a 100 Mgy biodiesel plant in Montana using camelina as a feedstock. Camelina, also popularly known as gold-of-pleasure, is a feedstock that has low input requirements and can be produced more cheaply than other feedstocks such as soy.

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