A major player in the ethanol industry with a plant in Kansas has filed for bankruptcy. Midwest corn suppliers say they’re owed millions of dollars.
Spanish company Abengoa produces grain ethanol here in the Midwest. It also built a cellulosic ethanol plant in Kansas to make fuel from grasses and other bio-products.
But that so-called advanced biofuel hasn’t truly hit the market.
As part of the bankruptcy, the court could force Abengoa to sell its assets. If that happens, Iowa State University economist Dave Swenson says, the big question is whether its cellulosic technology is sound.
"If this is a viable technology, then this is an opportunity for somebody to buy something at something on the dollar that’s much less than one," Swenson says.
Swenson says Abengoa had the potential to produce a quarter of U.S. cellulosic ethanol. But for now its Kansas plant sits unused.
