ICM purchases shuttered Kansas ethanol facility

ICM Inc., Colwich, Kansas,  announced it was the successful bidder on the Colwich ethanol facility for sale by Abengoa Bioenergy, with U.S. headquarters in St. Louis, conducted under the provisions of the U.S. Bankruptcy Code. The company will purchase the shuttered Colwich ethanol facility and property for $3.1 million.

“ICM values this location in Colwich and we are evaluating the best way to exercise that opportunity,” said Dave VanderGriend, founder and CEO of ICM. “We continue to focus our efforts on developing solutions that deliver value-added product streams to the renewable energy industry.”

The company's acquisition agreements are subject to review and approval by the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Eastern District of Missouri at a hearing currently scheduled for Aug. 29, 2016. The acquisitions are expected to be complete no later than Sept. 30, 2016, subject to regulatory approval and customary closing conditions, at which time the asset will be offered to ICM.

Abengoa Bioenergy Biomass of Kansas, hired Los Angeles-based finance advisory firm Ocean Park Advisors in July to find a buyer or investor for its second-generation cellulosic ethanol plant in Hugoton, Kansas, according to a previously published article in The Wichita Eagle.

According to the article, the 25-million-gallon per year plant produced ethanol from plant fibers. It operated for about a year before being shut down in the wake of its Spain-based parent company’s bankruptcy.

The plant was considered one of the first large-scale, second-generation cellulosic ethanol plants in the country. According to the article, the 400-acres site includes the cellulosic ethanol biorefinery with an integrated, biomass-to-electric power generation plant and a wastewater treatment plant producing 21 megawatts electrical power a year.