Financing for ethanol plant obtained

Wheat silos and ethanol tanks will be popping up in Great Falls within the year now that a group of Montana farmers,
environmental advocates and business leaders have obtained the $300 million in financing needed to build Montana’s first
ethanol plant.

By CHRISTINA QUINN, IR Business Writer

Agri-Tech last year obtained an air-quality permit and is ready to hire an out-of-state construction company to begin work within the
year, according to Tim Babcock, a former Montana governor and an investor in Agri-Tech.
The plant, which will be located between Malmstrom Air Force Base and a “tank farm” pipeline terminal, will cost $300 million to
build over two years, employing 400 people. Many of those workers will be from Great Falls.

Once the plant is ready, Agri-Tech will hire 150 people to produce 100 million gallons of ethanol fuel a year. In addition, the plant
will produce 500,000 tons of wheat and barley meal for animal feed.

Because it will use wheat and barley instead of corn for ethanol, the plant will be a little different than those already operating
throughout the United States. The ethanol will make up 50 percent of the final product, according to Babcock. The rest will be 25
percent animal feed and 25 percent gluten, a wheat product used for baking.

The end result will be ethanol that’s similar to traditional organic-compounds used as an additive to gasoline, according to
Babcock. However, by using wheat and barley, the plant will rely on Montana farmers rather than out-of-state corn farmers, Babcock
said. Every year, the plant will use 30 million bushels of barley and 10 million bushels of high-protein wheat, according to earlier
news reports.

“I have had a real desire since I was in office (about 30 years ago) to do something with our Montana wheat farmers,” Babcock said,
explaining that Agri-Tech will provide another outlet for farmers to sell their crops.
The final product will be sold in Montana and to western states including California, which in four years will ban the common
clean-air additive MTBE because it contaminates water supplies.
Agri-Tech has been working for a decade to become a part of the shift toward ethanol, according to Babcock. In the end, the group
had to go out of state to find the financial backing, he said.

The effort should pay off, according to Babcock.
Ethanol is growing in popularity because it is an organic compound used as a fuel additive that lowers the need for fossil fuels.
When blended with gasoline, ethanol produces a clean-burning fuel and relies on a renewable resource that doesn’t take millions
of years to form as petroleum does. Many states other than Montana are phasing out the use of fuels that lack a clean-burning
additive like ethanol.

Ethanol plants, however, are currently under investigation by the Environmental Protection Agency to determine whether the
process of converting corn to a gasoline additive pollutes the air with carbon monoxide.
In Agri-Tech’s case, the Montana Department of Environmental Quality approved a permit for the Great Falls plant with little
protest. Babcock said the plant will rely on natural gas to operate.

Reporter Christina Quinn can be reached at 447-4075.

http://helenair.com/montana/1A4.html