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Biorefinery offers welcome opportunities

CJ Bio America, Lygos Inc. team up with Webster County

In the early 1990s, local residents heard repeated, often vague plans for a corn plant west of Fort Dodge where the tiny village of Tara once stood.

It took awhile, but the community, region and state got something much bigger and better than a single corn plant in that area. What developed instead was an ag industrial park called Iowa’s Crossroads of Global Innovation. It is home to Valero Renewables, Cargill and CJ Bio America. And the site is about to grow again.

The community got a nice infusion of good news recently when company and local leaders announced that a new biorefinery that will create 60 new jobs will be built there.

That new plant will be the result of a partnership between CJ Bio America and California-based Lygos Inc. When completed, the biorefinery will make biodegradable polymers.

Biodegradable polymers are something new and different for Iowans who are accustomed to value-added ag products like amino acids, biodiesel and ethanol. We will all learn more about these substances and their uses as the biorefinery project advances. There are many details of this initiative that will become known in the coming weeks and months.

But there are some key facts already known that are nothing but good news.

The first is the 60 new jobs the biorefinery will create. That means 60 more people earning a living in our community and spending some of those earnings doing business with local stores and restaurants. And while no figures have been released, it is a safe bet that these will not be minimum wage jobs.

Another key fact made public is that construction of the facility is expected to take 18 to 24 months. That means good steady work for construction companies for about two years. That is good news for local companies and their workers. And a project of this size may bring in companies from outside of Webster County and Fort Dodge as well. That will mean more people coming into our area and doing business with local stores and restaurants.

The leaders of the two companies plus the Greater Fort Dodge Growth Alliance and county and city officials are to be congratulated for their work on this project.

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