The project was announced Friday afternoon by Ed Bailey of Browns, chief executive officer and president of Illini Cropland & Energy, and the company's vice president, Allen Wilson of Fairfield, at the site of the ethanol plant just east of the Super 8 motel south of Grayville.

Joining them was Mike Bryan, CEO of Colorado-based BBI International, a consulting firm to the renewable fuels industry, which conducted the feasibility study for the project and will guide development of the new plant.

The size of the plant is "yet to be determined," Bryan said, but he estimated it to cost between $75 and $100 million, producing 60 to 75 million gallons of fuel ethanol each year.

When completed, the plant will employ "someplace around 50 people," Bryan said. Construction will take from 12 to 14 months and will create 50 to 100 construction jobs, he said. It will be constructed on an 80-acre site Bailey purchased earlier this year from SJD Farms, based in Evansville, Ind.

Total annual revenue for the plant will be $80 to $120 million, depending on the size of the plant, with 20 percent of that coming from the production of high-quality distiller's grain for a number of agricultural purposes, Bryan said.

The plant will use between 20 and 30 million bushels of corn per year, Bryan said.

Bailey said he anticipates development of a distribution center at the site to handle the outflow of the plant's products.

Bryan said it will take 16 to 21 months before IC&E is ready to break ground at the site. "Basically, it's a 2 1/2-year project until there's steam coming out of the stack,"  he said.

Bailey said there is no timetable for restoration of the rail line, the first phase of which will run from the Norfolk-Southern line at Browns to the plant site at Grayville. The second phase will entail reconstruction of the old Illinois Central bridge across the Wabash River to reach the CSX line at Poseyville, Ind. A section of the bridge caved in during last January's record flood.

Bailey said he has received permission from the federal Surface Transportation Board to reclaim the right-of-way for rail use. Part of the property constituting the old Indiana Hi-Rail system was held by the Indiana Trails Fund for use as a bicycle trail.

Bailey praised the White County Economic Development Group as well as the City of Grayville and the Greater Wabash Regional Planning Commission for their assistance with the project.