Conveyor Fire Breaks Out at Pennsylvania Ethanol Plant

Firefighters responded to a machinery fire at the Pennsylvania Grain Processing LLC ethanol plant in Clearfield, PA on Friday morning, several local news organizations reported.

The fire started on a conveyor belt at about midnight, fire officials told television news station WJAC. No media reports contained details on the cause of the fire or whether injuries were reported.

Pennsylvania Grain Processing’s Clearfield facility has an annual processing capacity of 40 million bushels of grain that it turns into into 330,000 tn/yr of dry distillers grain with solubles (DDGS) and 110 million gal/yr of ethanol, according to the company’s website.

The site was purchased by Pennsylvania Grain Processing, part of Zeeland Farm Services Inc., in 2012 for $9.35 million after the plant’s original owner went into bankruptcy, Ethanol Producer Magazine reported at the time of the acquisition. Opened in 2010, some $270 million was reportedly invested to build the facility.

A search of inspection records from the U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) conducted by Powder & Bulk Solids revealed that the Clearfield plant was cited for five serious violations in May 2018 and ordered to pay penalties totaling $25,285. The records to not provide details on the nature of the hazards allegedly present at the facility.

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