Three Rivers Energy biorefinery looking to reopen late this summer.
Three Rivers Energy will reopen late this summer, according to Lakeview Energy which owns the local biorefinery.
Upgrades are now underway related to producing materials for a hand sanitizer and hygiene products maker.
Three Rivers Energy started as the Coshocton Ethanol Plant in 2008. It shutdown after 10 months. C.E. Acquisitions, a partnership of Lakeview Energy and Crestwood Energy of Illinois, acquired the biofuels refinery in 2013. It previously produced ethanol, distillers grains to feed livestock and corn oil.
The plant closed in October 2019 due to an unsure corn crop and policies of the Donald Trump presidential administration hurting the industry. In July 2020, company CEO Jim Galvin said the COVID-19 pandemic derailed reopening plans. They once had 40 workers and a few employees were kept to monitor and maintain the plant.
Lakeview recently announced the closing of a $50 million capital partnership with Orion Energy Partners to fund process upgrades at the Coshocton biorefinery. The investment will provide energy savings to Lakeview and support a long-term offtake agreement with a producer of hand sanitizer and other hygiene products.
Under this strategic arrangement, Lakeview will supply the company with low carbon United States Pharmacopeia (USP) grade ethyl alcohol for use in its various product lines.
With the infusion of Orion’s flexible capital, Lakeview will restart the plant and produce USP grade ethanol, as well as fuel grade ethanol and associated co-products. The process upgrade projects will be completed in early 2022. Galvin said the project is already underway and they hope to reopen late this summer, although a date hasn’t been set.
Jim Galvin, Company CEO.
We are excited to collaborate with Orion, an industry leader in sustainable infrastructure, and this partnership marks Orion’s confidence in our team, industry experience and mission.
Chris Leary, investment partner at Orion, in the release.
We also recognize that society is still grappling with social and economic challenges resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic and we feel proud to be supporting a business that will bring benefit to the local community in the form of new jobs and positive public health attributes.
Fluid Quip Technologies also recently announced it will install a high-quality alcohol (HQA) system at Three Rivers Energy. The HQA installation will enable the facility to produce high purity GNS alcohol for the global sanitizer and disinfectant markets. In addition to the HQA system, Fluid Quip will also construct and install a distillation system for the biofuel production portion of the plant, lowering the overall cost to produce biofuel.
The installation of the HQA system at the plant marks the second installment of this technology for Fluid Quip. The HQA system will enable Three Rivers to produce 25 million gallons of GNS grade alcohol annually, while significantly reducing the energy required to produce the alcohol.
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“The combination of these cutting-edge technologies offers tremendous long-term opportunities for Three Rivers Energy, the local Coshocton community and farmers in our region,” said Galvin in the release.
“The investment in the FQT HQA System will allow Three Rivers to diversify its product portfolio with the production of high quality, low carbon alcohols while also improving efficiencies across our biorefinery in the production of our biofuels, animal feed and corn oil.”
Three Rivers Energy looking to reopen late this summer, COSHOCTON, May 16, 2021