The state's first ethanol production facility is set to be sold at a foreclosure auction later this month.
The $100 million factory, located about 20 miles west of Fayetteville in Hoke County, has been taken over by Cape Fear Farm Credit after the owner, Clean Burn Fuels, filed for bankruptcy in early April.
The foreclosure auction is set for Aug. 24, said Lonnie Player, Jr., a Fayetteville attorney who has been named substitute trustee in the case.
Clean Burn Fuels borrowed $69 million from Cape Fear Farm Credit to build the plant, according to Hoke County property records.
After operating for less than a year, Clean Burn Fuels halted production at the plant in March. The company initially said that the move was temporary and that production would resume once high corn prices drop.
But corn prices have continued to rise, doubling over the last year.
The Clean Burn Fuels plant was expected to produce 5 million gallons of ethanol a month, with the ability to eventually expand to 240 million gallons a year.
That would have made it the largest ethanol production plant in the country.
North Carolina once aspired to become the Southeastern hub for ethanol production. At one point seven projects had been proposed, but controversy plagued ethanol and the local developers were unable to raise the financing to continue development.
Meanwhile, ethanol prices have failed to keep up with rising corn prices.
Business reporter David Bracken came to the N&O in 2004. He covers commercial and residential real estate. Contact David at 919-829-4548 or
Comments
Corn was doomed to fail in NC
Fri, 08/12/2011 - 18:54 — riddickfieldSince our state is a net importer of corn. Now if they could have used sweet potatos, that might have worked. Foolish to build a corn ethanol plant here. build it in the midwest where the states are net exporters of corn.
Just the latest example of how the federal govt. can ruin
Fri, 08/12/2011 - 17:43 — Platowasrighta market. The idea of taking corn and spending more energy to create ethanol than we get from the ethanol generated makes absolutely no sense to anyone other than the fools that run our government.
Buh-bye
Fri, 08/12/2011 - 17:27 — GetSeriousCorn-as-fuel wasn't well thought out. Bad idea. Let's let this one go and move on to other renewable concepts -- and, no, not for 100% of the nation's energy needs right now, but to get a start on those days when our fossil fuels fizzle out.
I learned on NPR this week that the Alaska Permanent Fund, which appropriates part of the oil industry's profits from Alaska-drilled oil and invests it for Alaska's citizens, is based on future days when all the oil is gone and the state will need to survive on the ROI from the massive investment fund (one of the planet's largest). Even Alaska knows that oil is a diminishing commodity.
Stop kissing the oil/gas/coal king's ring and start thinking like earthlings with a future. Wind, water, solar, and conservation technologies aren't as tree-huggy hysterical as some of y'all like to say it is. Let these industries grow into viable alternatives while we have the time to perfect the science *before* we need it to survive.
Ethanol
Fri, 08/12/2011 - 16:11 — will1973Well having Cree with its thousands of high paying jobs and all the other various local green tech companies that show cased their work at the Convention Center recently shows that green tech is working nicely for the Triangle thank you very much.
Ethanol was never considered "Green" by environmentalists, only by the corn lobby. Even Al Gore, the leading candidate for bashing by anti-environment people such as yourselves, knows ethanol is a farce. Don't believe me? Google "Al Gore" and "ethanol" together. Steve and 'liberaslayer" need to come with facts, not just "hope change" comments.
How's that "Green Jobs" hope
Fri, 08/12/2011 - 14:54 — LibSlayerHow's that "Green Jobs" hope and change working out?
Where are the politicians?
Fri, 08/12/2011 - 14:44 — stevemichaelsWonder how many "media hog" politicans were on site when this was announced? Claiming such wonders and amazement of the great ethanol revolution, how many jobs did they claim would be produced?