Valero Energy Corp.’s renewables subsidiary has purchased a mothballed corn ethanol plant in Indiana, the company announced today. The acquisition of Aventine Renewable Energy’s Mount Vernon plant marks Valero’s first ethanol plant purchase since 2010, when it bought three facilities located in Ohio, Indiana and Wisconsin. It is the 11th corn ethanol plant in the Valero renewables system.
The addition of the 110 million-gallons-per-year plant will bring Valero’s annual ethanol production capacity to 1.3 billion gallons. The plant has been idle for the past two years, but Valero intends to bring it back into operation over the next several months.
“We’re looking forward to hiring employees, restarting the plant and producing ethanol,” Martin Parrish, vice president for alternative energy and development at Valero, said in a company news release.
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