CLEARFIELD – The demolition of the former Penn Central Machine in the Clearfield County Technology Park began on Thursday in Bionol Clearfield LLC’s efforts to build Clearfield County’s first ethanol plant.
Corinne Young, director of public and government affairs for BioEnergy, stated that financing closed on Wednesday.
In mid-January Penn Central Machine moved a 4,000 square foot metal building to their new location near the Clearfield County Area Agency on Aging Inc.’s Meals on Wheels distribution center. On Tuesday the Clearfield County Commissioners approved signing a memorandum of understanding that Bionol needed for the closing.
The $250 million project is slated to produce 108-million-gallons-per-year of ethanol. The project will consist of both a corn-ethanol facility and a cellulosic pilot plant, one of the first in the nation. When the plant is completed, expected to be in the spring of 2009, about 55 semi-skilled or skilled workers will be employed at the ethanol plant. Those workers will include not just engineers but technicians and electricians.
