Panda Ethanol
Breaking Ground on 115 Million Gallon Ethanol Plant in Hereford
Panda Ethanol Inc. was joined on Sept. 14, 2006 by officials from across the state to break ground on the company's 115 million gallon-per-year denatured ethanol plant in Hereford, Texas. When finished, the first-of-its-kind facility will be one of the most energy efficient ethanol refineries in the nation and the largest bio-mass fueled ethanol plant in the United States.
- Double-loop rail track: Unlike "traditional" ethanol facilities, Panda uses a double-loop track to allow for the efficient unloading of a 110-car unit train of corn while simultaneously loading a 95-car unit train of ethanol.
- Manure Handling Area: distributes and feeds manure to the gasifier providing an uninterrupted flow of biomass material to fuel the steam process.
- Gasifier: gasifies the manure to generate the steam required for ethanol production.
- Wet Distillers Grain Building: for the handling, storage and load out of wet distillers grains.
- Ethanol Production Area: is the heart of the facility where fermentation, dehydration, distillation and evaporation occur.
- Ethanol Storage Tank: holds 4.5 million gallons of the finished product ready for loading.
- Grain Storage and Conveyor Feed: stores and feeds corn to the ethanol production process. A typical ethanol facility of this size stores 30 days worth of grain. Panda's facilities will store 45 days of corn or 4.8 million bushels.
Hereford, Texas
Manure Gasification Plant
The Hereford facility will annually refine 40 million bushels of feedstock-grade corn into 115 million gallons of denatured ethanol per year. View the Hereford construction cam
Local Support
"Great things happen when folks put their heads together for innovation and community development ... Using manure to fuel the plant helps the livestock industry, while the ethanol production helps Texas grain producers. Renewable energy products will help our country meet our future energy needs. Kudos ... for ... making this happen."
—Texas Agriculture Commissioner Susan Combs
"We are excited that Panda has chosen Hereford for this renewable energy project ... The community will not only benefit from new jobs and increased tax base created by the plant, the use of cattle manure as a fuel to make steam for the facility will also benefit the local feed lots. We are looking forward to the plant's start-up and to Panda becoming a part of Hereford's business community."
—Hereford Mayor Robert Josserand
Facility Facts
- Location: Hereford, Texas
- Site Size: 383 acres
- Co-Products: Ethanol, distillers grain, CO2, ash
- Ethanol Capacity: 115 million gallons-per-year on a denatured basis
- Type of Distillers Grain: Wet distillers grain with solubles (WDGS)
- Fuel: Cattle Manure
- Air Permit Received: October, 2005
- Construction Start Date: September, 2006
- Anticipated Date of Substantial Completion: Third Quarter, 2008
Unique Site Attributes
- The world's largest commercial cattle feeding operations are located in the Texas Panhandle.
- 3.5 million head of cattle on feed within 100 miles of Hereford plant.
- Local feed yards within 50 miles of Hereford plant generate 2.1 million tons of manure annually, 4x the amount needed to fuel the facility.
- Contracts in place for 1.0 million tons of manure, 2x the plant's need.
- Hereford's annual output of distillers grains represents less than 20% of the local market's 1.9 million ton demand.