City Administrator Todd Feland Says BI Biorefinery Project Could Be Bought By New European Partner

The plant is located on Gateway Drive and has been shut down since 2022.  The ethanol and alcohol plant was the Red River Biorefinery, and it closed because of environmental violations that were discovered with their wastewater discharge.

BI Biorefinery bought the facility two years ago, and it was supposed to reopen last year. It’s now unclear as to when it could reopen.

Feland also believes the city will have to create a development agreement with the possible buyer. There would most likely need to be more reinvestment before it can reopen.

Members of the potential ownership group are expected to visit Grand Forks either later this month or October so they can tour the facility. Feland says the European group is looking at a different mix of feedstock to produce ethanol.

There were sugar beet tailings and potatoes as stock for the facility’s product, and the Red River Biorefinery originally planned to process 500,000 metric tons of agricultural bio products each year.

Construction for the biorefinery was completed in 2020 with a $100 million investment. Ground broke in August 2018 and the original goal was to turn agricultural byproducts into about 19 million gallons of ethanol annually. It was also suppsoed to create 25 permanent jobs and 20 secondary positions.