Company plans to make $175 million investment in Colwich

Ethanol pioneer ICM announced Thursday that it is in the final stages of planning a $175 million advanced bio-refinery in Colwich.

The plant, to be called ICM Element, will produce 70 million gallons per year of ethanol and will showcase the company’s new technologies. For two decades, ICM has developed ethanol refining technology, and overseen the construction and management of the plants.

The company hopes to start construction in the fall.

The company expects the new Colwich plant to create more than 50 permanent jobs, as well as hundreds of construction jobs. At full production, it will also consume more than 22 million bushels of corn and sorghum a year, largely from local farmers.

The company, headquartered on the east side of Colwich, will build the plant next door to its headquarters on top of the now-closed Abengoa ethanol plant.

ICM is in the process of scrapping most of the former plant. It was more than 30 years old, and ICM President Chris Mitchell said most of the equipment was obsolete.

ICM bought the former Abengoa plant in August after Abengoa declared bankruptcy last year. Mitchell said ICM bought the plant in part because it wanted to control what happened to a plant sitting next to its headquarters.

But, he said, they also wanted a place to showcase their new technologies. The new plant will produce 70 million gallons per year of ethanol, including up to 5 million from cellulosic sources such as switchgrass. It will also produce syngas and other valuable byproducts from biofuels.

Overall, the plant would be one of the lowest-cost, least carbon-producing plants.

“We believe that in order to take the next step of rolling out our new platform of technology, we were best served to take the lead and really make the investment close to our facility in Colwich and really move that along,” Mitchell said. “And it will give us a chance to really showcase our technology.”

Not only will the plant compete well, Mitchell said, but U.S. ethanol production has begun growing again in the last few years. Last year saw record ethanol production caused by the overall rise in automobile fuel consumption, the EPA’s approval to lift the cap on ethanol mixed into gasoline from 10 to 15 percent — E10 to E15 — and exports.

Mitchell downplayed any concerns about whether the new Trump administration would change the playing field for ethanol producers.

“We have confidence that there will be a market down the road for us,” he said.

In Colwich, the construction of a new plant and the addition of jobs has been good news, said Mayor Terry Spexarth.

The city has abated the company’s property taxes for the next 10 years but will receive $125,000 per year in lieu of taxes. When that 10 years is up, the city will likely receive more than $1 million in taxes, Spexarth said.

Until then, he said, there are franchise taxes on the utilities and the possibility of jobs and growth.

“We have been working with ICM for the last several months on the IRBs and at the last council meeting we approved up to $180 million in IRBs, so to see it get to this point is really exciting,” Spexarth said.

This story was originally published March 2, 2017 at 11:26 AM with the headline "Company plans to make $175 million investment in Colwich."