The past six months have been one of change for the fuel ethanol industry. President George W. Bush made another push for more alternative fuels in his State of the Union address, the U.S. DOE awarded grants to six cellulosic projects, and the United States and Brazil—the world’s largest ethanol producers—plant to partner to further develop ethanol in the Western Hemisphere.

However, one constant has been steady growth. Nowhere does that show up better than looking at the state-by-state statistics over the past six months. Ethanol Producer Magazine compared the top 10 states from its Fall 2006 Ethanol Plant Map and the Spring 2007 Ethanol Plant Map, which will be distributed with the May 2007 issue.

The following lists are broken down into three categories. Total capacity refers to the total amount of fuel ethanol production capacity in operation, idle, under construction and under expansion. The other lists are divided into combined production and idle capacity, and combined capacity under construction or expansion.

In terms of total ethanol capacity, the top 10 states didn’t change much from fall 2006 to spring 2007. In fact, the top six states remained in the same order. Wisconsin jumped above Kansas in total capacity. However, both states have approximately the same amount of capacity under construction.

Texas claimed the No. 10 spot in total capacity due to three 100 MMgy projects that are under construction.

The capacity under construction/expansion is where much of the change took place in the past six months. Iowa regained the No. 1 spot over Nebraska. Minnesota and South Dakota have each more than doubled the amount of gallons under construction/expansion.

With the exception of Texas, all states on the list have ties to the traditional corn-growing regions of the Plains States, Upper Midwest and Corn Belt.

Canadian provinces were taken into account with the lists. However, no single province had enough capacity to crack the top 10. Canada has 13 plants with more than 370 MMgy of capacity in operation or under construction.

The capacity figures continue to evolve almost every week. There are currently 118 producing plants with more than 5.6 billion gallons of annual capacity in the United States. An additional 4.587 billion gallons is under construction or expansion.

For a complete and updated listing of all plants, please visit http://www.ethanolproducer.com/plant-list.jsp.

Spring 2007 Ethanol Plant Map (in millions of gallons)

Total capacity
1. Iowa—2,557
2. Nebraska—1,437
3. Illinois—1,107
4. Minnesota—947
5. South Dakota—867
6. Indiana—571
7. Wisconsin—493
8. Kansas—454
9. Ohio—390
10. Texas—300

Under production/idle
1. Iowa—1,717
2. Illinois—820
3. Nebraska—677
4. Minnesota—613
5. South Dakota—552
6. Wisconsin—221
7. Kansas—214
8. Michigan—207
9. Indiana—160
10. Missouri—145

Under construction/expansion
1. Iowa--840
2. Nebraska—760
3. Indiana—411
4. Ohio—384
5. Minnesota—328
6. South Dakota—315
7. Texas—300
8. Illinois—287
9. Wisconsin—272
10. Kansas—240

Fall 2006 Ethanol Plant Map (in millions of gallons)

Total capacity
1. Iowa—2,135
2. Nebraska—1,390
3. Illinois—943
4. Minnesota—768
5. South Dakota—711
6. Indiana—470
7. Kansas—344
8. Wisconsin—311
9.Ohio—232
10. Michigan—207

Under production/idle
1. Iowa—1,595
2. llinois—696
3. Nebraska—602
4. Minnesota—542
5. South Dakota—492
6. Wisconsin—219
7. Kansas—214
8. Michigan—150
9. Missouri—145
10. Indiana—120

Under construction/expansion
1. Nebraska—470
2. Iowa—470
3. Indiana—350
4. Ohio—226
5. Texas—200
6. Illinois—187
7. Minnesota—160
8. South Dakota—154
9. New York—150
10. Oregon—143

Compiled by Ethanol Producer Magazine staff.

Posted: 9:42 a.m. CDT Friday, March 23, 2007