Hub City
June 5, 2007
BY Nicholas Zeman
Illinois River Energy LLC, a 50 MMgy facility in Rochelle, Ill., began operations at the end of 2006, so the industry is a fairly new addition to the town, located about 80 miles west of the busy streets of downtown Chicago. The location is ideal for making ethanol, considering some of its amenities.
For one, the Union Pacific and Burlington Northern Santa Fe railroads intersect here, so transportation options are at hand. Rochelle is part of "The Overland Route"—the railway between Chicago and San Francisco—one of the most crucial thoroughfares for commodity transportation in the United States. As many as 120 freight trains a day roll through Rochelle. The traffic is mostly generated by coal transports and what the Rochelle Railroad Park calls "intermodal" movement, meaning double-stacked containers carrying international freight.
North-central Illinois has a hearty stock of grain, too. With futures and options on corn, soybeans and other agricultural commodities from around the world being traded at the Chicago Board of Trade (CBOT), the area is literally the center of the world market. The last agricultural census performed in Ogle County in 2002 reported that were 25.7 million bushels of corn produced that year on 177,139 acres, so there is ample feedstock for an ethanol plant. This means that nearly half of the county's farm acres are devoted to corn, but there is a considerable amount of soybeans, hogs and cows produced every year, as well. "We have millions of bushels of corn grown within five miles of here, we're only 40 miles from the western suburbs [of Chicago], and we have one of the largest intermodal rail facilities in the world," says Jason Anderson, president of Greater Rochelle Economic Development Corp. (GREDC), adding that plans are underway to develop an entire industrial energy park in Rochelle. "We have an ambitious goal of building a 2,500-acre energy campus, and we think we have the infrastructure in place to support several major biorefineries."
As a dynamic distribution center, a handful of large food processing firms operate out of Rochelle, including ConAgra Foods and Hormel Foods. Because Rochelle has immediate access to raw commodities and large consumer markets, as well as excellent transportation and utilities infrastructure, it is becoming a "prime location for renewable energy operations and new technologies," GREDC states.
Illinois is certainly a hot spot for ethanol development these days. Illinois River Energy LLC is already expanding its production capacity to over 100 MMgy, and the Illinois Corn Marketing Board says that there are more than 50 sites in the state currently being investigated for ethanol production.
For one, the Union Pacific and Burlington Northern Santa Fe railroads intersect here, so transportation options are at hand. Rochelle is part of "The Overland Route"—the railway between Chicago and San Francisco—one of the most crucial thoroughfares for commodity transportation in the United States. As many as 120 freight trains a day roll through Rochelle. The traffic is mostly generated by coal transports and what the Rochelle Railroad Park calls "intermodal" movement, meaning double-stacked containers carrying international freight.
North-central Illinois has a hearty stock of grain, too. With futures and options on corn, soybeans and other agricultural commodities from around the world being traded at the Chicago Board of Trade (CBOT), the area is literally the center of the world market. The last agricultural census performed in Ogle County in 2002 reported that were 25.7 million bushels of corn produced that year on 177,139 acres, so there is ample feedstock for an ethanol plant. This means that nearly half of the county's farm acres are devoted to corn, but there is a considerable amount of soybeans, hogs and cows produced every year, as well. "We have millions of bushels of corn grown within five miles of here, we're only 40 miles from the western suburbs [of Chicago], and we have one of the largest intermodal rail facilities in the world," says Jason Anderson, president of Greater Rochelle Economic Development Corp. (GREDC), adding that plans are underway to develop an entire industrial energy park in Rochelle. "We have an ambitious goal of building a 2,500-acre energy campus, and we think we have the infrastructure in place to support several major biorefineries."
As a dynamic distribution center, a handful of large food processing firms operate out of Rochelle, including ConAgra Foods and Hormel Foods. Because Rochelle has immediate access to raw commodities and large consumer markets, as well as excellent transportation and utilities infrastructure, it is becoming a "prime location for renewable energy operations and new technologies," GREDC states.
Illinois is certainly a hot spot for ethanol development these days. Illinois River Energy LLC is already expanding its production capacity to over 100 MMgy, and the Illinois Corn Marketing Board says that there are more than 50 sites in the state currently being investigated for ethanol production.
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