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BioProcess Algae, Green Plains Renewable Energy break ground on new plant

 

A Rhode Island-based biofuels company is expanding its operation at a southwest Iowa plant.

BioProcess Algae broke ground Wednesday on a five-acre facility at the Green Plains Energy ethanol plant in Shenandoah. BioProcess opened a demonstration plant in 2009 at GPRE’s Shenandoah campus. The facility captures the waste products used to make ethanol, and uses them to grow algae. The algae is then used in animal feed.

BioProcess CEO Tim Burns says a successful trial last summer of the algae’s use in other products led to the expansion of the Shenandoah facility. He says they’re working with companies now for fish meal replacements and Omega oils that can be produced at the plant

Burns says construction on the facility will be complete in June. BioProcess plans to begin selling the product made at the new plant in the third quarter of this year.