Camilla ethanol plant under construction

Bulldozers have been grading the future site of First United Ethanol, LLC (FUEL) since Jan. 2.

Construction of the $170 million plant, is expected to begin later this year, Murray Campbell, chairman of the FUEL board of directors said.

The FUEL board of directors held a groundbreaking ceremony, Jan. 3, at the plant site during which local, state and national officials, including Sens. Saxby Chambliss and Johnny Isakson, dug shovels of red Georgia clay to celebrate the birth of the plant. FUEL is building a 100 million gallon dry mill ethanol facility, which is expected to use 36 million bushels of corn annually to produce 100 million gallons of ethanol.

“If everything stays on track we hope to start producing ethanol in June or July of 2008,” Campbell said. “This is a great day for us. We’ve been working on this project for twenty-three months, and we’re excited about how all of our investors have come together to make this project work.”

The FUEL

Elected officials, including Sens. Saxby Chambliss and Johnny Isakson (second and third from left), joined investors of the First United Ethanol, LLC, for the groundbreaking of the Camilla ethanol plan on Jan. 3.

plant is being designed and built by Fagen, Inc., a Minnesota based company that has built 80 ethanol plants in 15 states across the U. S. In addition to ethanol, the plant will be capable of producing dry distillers grains - a product of the ethanol process, which is a high protein feed that can be used by Georgia livestock, dairy and poultry producers. The plant will also annually capture 160,000 tons of raw carbon dioxide gas that will be converted

“This event signifies a reality. By seeing the dirt being moved here today, our stockholders and the people who have invested in this project can see that this is going to happen,” FUEL board member and Mitchell County Farm Bureau President Bubba Johnson said. “Over fifty percent of the people who bought stock in FUEL are farmers. To begin with, most of the corn we use will come out of the Midwest, but our long range goal is to buy local corn and encourage people to grow more corn.”

Campbell made a special presentation during the ceremony recognizing the vision of Mitchell County farmer Lewis B. Collins, who presented testimony before Congress in 1979 regarding the ethanol industry, which was in its infancy at the time. Collins pressed for a national alcohol fuels program. The lane running through the facility will be named after Collins in honor of his efforts.