Heron Lake BioEnergy will help usher in a new era in the ethanol production.

This plant will be one of the first in the United States and the first in Minnesota to have a name plate capacity of 50 million gallons and use coal as its primary source of energy.

This plant will be able to produce at least 50 million gallons of denatured ethanol and 165,000 tons of Dried Distillers Grains with Soluble's (DDGS). The total cost of the plant is expected to be approximately $119.3 million. It is projected to employ 39 people to operate this facility.

The 50 million gallon production capacity appears to be the optimum size for production efficiency but not so large as to negatively influence the cost of corn. The construction design and process technology used in this plant will make it one of the lowest cost producers of ethanol in the industry.

The use of coal as a primary energy source was influenced by the continued volatility and escalation in the cost of natural gas (the primary energy source used in all other plants).

Coal can be contracted at current prices (estimated to be $1.75 per million BTU's) for 7 to 10 years. Conversely, the average price of natural gas on the NYMEX for Jan. 1, 2006 - March 2010 is about $5.25 per million BTU's and the price can fluctuate daily.