SPIRITWOOD, N.D. (NewsDakota.com) – Groundbreaking for a bio-refinery plant that will be built in Spiritwood, North Dakota is planned for the spring of 2019.

NDSU Extension Educator Randy Grueneich said the plant will produce about 16 million gallons of cellulosic ethanol per year using about 280,000 tons of wheat straw.

He said the advanced biofuel and 120,000 lignin pellets that will be produced at the plant have buyers in Europe and California.

It will be called the New Energy Spirit Biomass Refinery. New Energy Blue CEO Thomas Corle said the bio-refinery will be the first commercial Inbicon cellulosic ethanol plant in the U.S. The technology comes from a Denmark based company. Corle said the new plant will be located adjacent to Dakota Spirit AgEnergy in Spiritwood ND. That company will hold a management and operations agreement but the corn ethanol facility will not hold any ownership in the project.

The full interview with Grueneich is available here.