Switchgrass From Panhandle Plot Going To New Plant

HUGOTON, Kan. (AP) - As Oklahoma-based scientists study the economic viability of using switchgrass as a component of ethanol, they already know where their first full crop will end up.

About 35 miles from a 1,000-acre switchgrass field near Guymon in the Oklahoma Panhandle, Abengoa Bioenergy Corp. plans to soon begin construction on a biorefinery in southwestern Kansas that will be among the first of its kind in the U.S.

Thomas Robb, the manager of institutional relations for Abengoa, says the biorefinery likely will open by mid 2011. That's around the time the switchgrass plot will be ready for its first full harvest.

Abengoa formally announced the $300 million project in August 2007, after it received a $76.8 million grant from the U.S. Department of Energy to help develop 1 of the nation's first cellulosic ethanol plants.

Five other companies received similar grants.

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