As part of the purchase, the company secured a super senior position in the ethanol production facility, as well as financially restructured the facility to operate profitably.
The Mead plant is a closed-loop system for distilling commercial quantities of ethanol using methane gas recaptured from cow manure, instead of fossil fuels.
The patented, closed-loop system combines a 25-million-gallon ethanol refinery, beef cattle feedlot, and anaerobic digesters to maximize energy efficiencies unavailable to each component on a stand-alone basis.
AltEn is pursuing the necessary permits to begin ramping the facility up for production, which is anticipated in 2011.
