Iowa regional news and notes - Agri News
California firm to build Iowa biomass plant
DES MOINES -- A San Francisco-based company plans to build a plant in central Iowa where it will produce anhydrous ammonia fuel and fertilizer from corn cobs and other biomass.
SynGest says it will build the plant near Menlo, about 40 miles west of Des Moines.
The company says it has signed an agreement to buy 75 acres, where it will build a plant that uses 150,000 tons of corn cobs annually to manufacture 50,000 tons of bio-ammonia. SynGest says it's the first plant of its kind in the nation.
Company CEO Jack Oswald estimated the plant will employ about 40 people full-time, and 500 people will work on construction. Startup is planned for fall 2009 or spring 2010.
Iowa activists object to manure measure
DES MOINES -- Community and environmental activists are criticizing a measure working its way through the Legislature that they claim would undercut efforts to protect Iowa's rivers and streams.