Kansas Facility Almost Doubles Ethanol Capacity

July 29, 2002

U.S. Energy Partners LLC has completed a major expansion to their ethanol plant from 25 to 40 million gallons per year capacity. U.S. Energy Partners LLC, on the outskirts of Russell, KS, is co-located in an industrial park adjacent to an affiliated wheat gluten plant and the town's power plant.

For its part, the wheat gluten plant provides roughly one-third of the feedstock for the ethanol plant, which uses milo as the base feedstock. The power plant provides energy, steam, and waste heat to the plant. In additional to ethanol, the plant produces distillers' dried grains (DDG) and carbon dioxide.

"The U.S. Energy Partners ethanol plant is a classic example of how the ethanol industry can boost a local economy," said Bob Dinneen, president of the Renewable Fuels Association. "Not only do they employ more than 30 people at the ethanol plant, U.S. Energy Partners integrated a closed wheat gluten plant into their operations thereby saving jobs. The operation of an ethanol plant this size will generate tens of millions of dollars of economic activity throughout the local community. I congratulate U.S. Energy Partners on their rapid expansion and look forward to their future success."

Expansion was completed ahead of schedule and on budget by ICM and Fagen, said Larry Leis, president of U.S. Energy Partners. "This expansion will allow us to take advantage of efficiencies-of-scale. Also, the expansion was necessary to accommodate the waste starch stream from the neighboring wheat gluten plant U.S. Energy Partners recently purchased and restarted."