Cattle manure to fuel new ethanol plant in Texas

Dallas, TX— Panda Energy and Lurgi PSI announced that they have reached an agreement for Lurgi to build Panda’s 100 million gallon fuel ethanol plant in Hereford, Texas. Construction on the $120 million facility should begin in December 2005 and be completed by December 2006. Once in operation, the plant will be the largest biomass powered fuel ethanol refinery in the United States. The facility will convert one billion pounds of cattle manure into a clean burning bio-gas that will be used to power the plant’s operation. By using bio-gas instead of natural gas the facility will save the equivalent of 1,000 barrels of oil per day, which will make it the most efficient refinery in the United States.

This is another major milestone for Panda’s Hereford project. In October Panda announced it had received an air permit for the facility from the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality. The permit was the first issued in Texas for an ethanol plant under the state’s New Source Review requirements. Panda recently announced it was building manure powered ethanol plants in Yuma, Colorado and Haskell County, Kansas. The Company has five other fuel ethanol refineries under development.

Panda’s Hereford ethanol plant will help reduce imports of foreign oil, protect the environment and save natural resources. The United States imports about 60% of the crude oil it refines. The Hereford plant will replace 2.4 million barrels of imported gasoline each year. Since 1978 every automobile produced for use in the United States can run on a 10% fuel ethanol blended gasoline, (E10), which reduces harmful carbon monoxide emissions by 25%. Automotive manufacturers are now producing cars and trucks that use a blend of 85% ethanol with gasoline (E85). When using E85, harmful emissions of carbon monoxide are reduced by 40%.