Ethanol plant tour

Eric Meeuwsen, center, whose family owns Zeeland Farm Services Inc., of Michigan, explains to Nebraska Lt. Gov. Rick Sheehy and Andrea McClintic of the Nebraska Department of Economic Development the grain receiving area of the Cambridge ethanol plant that his family has purchased and will operate as Nebraska Corn Processing LLC. Meeuwsen said the plant will open Monday with 19 employees, most of whom worked at the plant for the former owner. Production manager Ed Kryfka said production will start in about a month. The plant has a capacity of 40 million gallons of fuel-grade ethanol. "We'll push it to 44 million," Kryfka said. The plant also produces 420,000 tons of wet distiller's grain annually. Sheehy commented that restarting the ethanol plant -- which operated for nine months and then sat idle for one year -- should help corn prices in the area. Meeuwsen said the plant should give the farmers another option for marketing their corn.

Kryfka walked the lieutenant governor, McClintic and other Cambridge residents through "fermentation alley," and explained that although the plant is three years old, most of its equipment and technology is up-to-date. Sheehy told Meeuwsen, "Thank you for your investment in our state." [Click to enlarge]