Trash-to-Ethanol Plant Still Planned for Lake County

Evansville-based Powers Energy of America is still planning on buying land in south Lake County and building a facility that will convert trash into ethanol in about three years from now.

Lake County Solid Waste Management District Executive Director Jeff Langbein said Powers Energy owner Earl Powers is negotiating with three landowners on a new site near Schneider, after he lost an option to buy land near US 41.

Langbein says it could be about three years between the time a state permit is issued and the plant is in full operation.

Groundbreaking is still scheduled for next spring. Skeptics say the trash-to-ethanol gasification process is commercially untested. But langbein says engineers with the company that Powers Energy is working with are guaranteeing the process will work.

"IDEM has assured us that it'll move and we don't expect that'll be any more than about six months. Now that does not mean that they can't start moving dirt before the permit is issued before there are some things that can be done beforehand. Then it's about 29 to 36 months from the time they actually break ground until they're actually producing ethanol on a commercial basis," Langbein says.