Selma may get ethanol plant, 45 jobs

S.C. company seeks town's OK

SELMA -- A South Carolina company is planning a large ethanol plant near Selma, joining other companies scrambling to meet new legislative mandates for the alternative fuel.

East Coast Ethanol of Columbia wants 106 acres rezoned for the plant, which would produce 110 million gallons of ethanol a year from corn. The company declined to discuss the plant, which would be north of U.S. 70, about one mile east of Selma.

East Coast plans to sell shares to the public, and the company's vice chairman, Keith Parrish, said he didn't want to comment until the IPO is registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission in about two weeks.

Parrish met with Selma's planning board Dec. 10 to describe the operation, which would employ at least 45 people. The planning board recommended approval this month, and the town council scheduled a Jan. 8 public hearing.

"We'll take any jobs we can get," Town Manager Stan Farmer said. "It potentially could be a big deal for the community."

No construction timetable or cost was given for the plant, but Alex Hobbs, associate director of renewable technology at the N.C. Solar Center, said the investment could be about $130 million.

East Coast was formed in September through a merger of four ethanol companies in North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia and Florida. The plant in Selma was originally planned by Mid-Atlantic Ethanol of Benson, one of the four companies that merged.

The Selma plant would need to buy a large amount of water from Johnston County. It would require about 1.2 million gallons of water a day, about the same amount the town of Selma gets daily from wells, Farmer said.

Tim Broome, county utilities director, said there's plenty of unused capacity in the county system to supply the plant. The county also could provide as much as 7 million gallons of treated wastewater for the plant daily, Broome said.

A bigger challenge is finding enough affordable corn to make ethanol production profitable and attract investors, agriculture and energy experts say. Corn would have to be shipped in, because nearly all corn grown locally is earmarked for livestock, Johnston County agricultural extension agent Eric Spaulding said.

But corn from the Midwest has become more expensive as producers ramp up to meet a federal goal set this month by Congress to increase ethanol production from 6 billion gallons this year to 36 billion gallons by 2022.

According to the Renewable Fuels Association, there are about 70 ethanol refineries planned or under construction.

Of five ethanol plants proposed in North Carolina this year, only one is under construction -- a $100 million refinery being built in Hoke County by Clean Burn Fuels of Cary.

"There's not been enough profit to make the things go," Hobbs said, adding that the situation may change once use of cellulosic materials -- such as wood chips and cornstalks -- to make ethanol becomes more mainstream. Right now, that technology is too new to attract investors, he said.

"Everybody is waiting for the future to get here before they invest in it," Hobbs said.

(News researcher Denise Jones contributed to this report.)