The East Kansas Agri Energy Ethanol Plant in Garnett, celebrates its 15th Anniversary this Summer after weathering a collapse in fuel prices, but finding an important role in the demand for hand sanitizer alcohol due to the COVID 19 Health Emergency. CEO, Bill Pracht, says sale prices of ethanol closely follow petroleum prices and those price drops have put the plant under some financial constraint the past several years. He says pricing modifications to the Company’s Ethanol customers –refiners who blend percentages of ethanol with gasolines to meet Federal Fuel Emissions Standards — and a new market for sanitizer helped sustain the Company over the past year.
The Company was a Homegrown Operation, created from Agriculture Subcommittee Meetings of the Anderson County Economic Development Committee in the early 2000’s. An Investor drive rounded up individual and other corporate investors who then got bank financing for the balance of funds to construct the $48 million plant. The project was the largest private investment in Anderson County since the construction of Railroad Lines in the late 1800’s
