Sterling Ethanol LLC is owned by local investors that include farmers, ranchers and business people that primarily reside in Northeast Colorado. Sterling Ethanol LLC is currently building the first ethanol plant in the state of Colorado. The plant will have a design capacity to produce 42 million gallons of ethanol annually. Expansion plans are being pursued which will bring the capacity to 80 million gallons annually. In addition to ethanol, the plant will produce approximately 350,000 tons of distiller’s wet grain. Construction began April of 2005 on the state of the art, $52,000,000.00 facility. The plant was up and producing with in 7 months. This turn around time is the fastest known in the United States. Sterling Ethanol LLC began receiving the first truckloads of corn on October 25, 2005. The 440,000 bushel silos were filled by November 9th, 2005. On Saturday November 12th the plant began grinding corn for the production of ethanol. By November 16th the first ethanol was in the storage tanks awaiting transport to gasoline refineries for blending. The first truck of ethanol left the plant on November 23rd, 2005. The plant has 30 employees and operates 24 hours a day. Each day 42,000 bushels of corn are used in ethanol production. Each bushel of corn produces 2.8 gallons of ethanol. The distiller’s grain produced as a co-product of ethanol is highly sought after by the areas cattle feeders for its high protein levels. Once fully operational there will be nearly 110 trucks each day delivering corn to the plant, taking distiller’s grain to cattle feeders and transporting ethanol to refineries. Sterling Ethanol LLC is owned by 26 investor groups made up primarily of local agriculture producers and business owners.