Last year, AE Keyes secured $4.5m from Third Eye Capital to complete the repair and retrofit of the Keyes facility located in Keyes, California.
The additional financing will be used to restart and operate a 55 million gallon per year ethanol plant, which is expected to be fully operational by late April 2011.
The company took possession of the plant under a project agreement with Cilion last year and the revised deal extends the original lease from three to five years, with an early termination right at three years.
AE Keyes said that it has also signed a grain supply and services contract with JD Heiskell & Co and an ethanol marketing agreement with Kinergy Marketing.
The company will market its wet distillers grains through an agreement with AL Gilbert.
The facility’s natural gas and steam powered turbine cogeneration unit generates nearly all of the operating electric needs of the plant (4.3MW), the company said.
AE Biofuels plans to introduce its enzyme-based cellulosic ethanol technology at the Keyes facility and other California ethanol plants in 2011.
