Queensland ethanol plant put into administration

Australia’s first grains-to-ethanol plant at Dalby, Darling Downs in southern Queensland has gone into voluntary administration. The owners of the Dalby Bio-Refinery went into administration on June 18 and creditors have appointed Ernst and Young to review the business. Receiver Adam Nikitins says the bio-refinery owes more than A$80 million (US$68.6 million) to creditors. “The current strategy is to certainly continue operations at the plant. There are no planned redundancies,” he said. The plant began production only 18 months ago, converting local sorghum crops into ethanol. (June 22, 2010)