Volney Sunoco ethanol plant to use state grant in construction of barley-malting facility

VOLNEY, N.Y. — Sunoco’s ethanol-manufacturing plant in Volney will use a state grant of $700,000 to help pay for a new $9.1 million barley-malting facility.

The plant will be integral to the growth of the state’s craft-beer industry,” Sunoco said in a news release.

The grant is part of the $500 million that the Central New York regional economic-development council (REDC) secured in Gov. Cuomo’s Upstate-business competition, also dubbed the “Upstate Hunger Games.”

Sunoco is creating between five and eight full-time jobs for the new facility, which will support New York barley farmers.

Crews will build the malting facility inside the Sunoco ethanol plant, part of the “rejuvenation” of the former Miller Brewing Company site that closed in 1994.

Construction is set to begin “in the next 90 days,” according to the release.

Between 150 and 200 contractors will work to build the barley-malting operation. Engineering work for the project is underway, Sunoco said.

Project elements include a truck receiving and loading center, raw grain storage and cleaning components, malting equipment, and malt bagging and storage capacity.

Sunoco anticipates launching the facility’s operations in the fall of 2016 and reaching full capacity in 2017.

The malting operation will have the ability to produce about 2,000 total tons of malt annually, “establishing it as the largest malting facility in the eastern United States,” Sunoco said.

The REDC grant helps make the construction “a reality and expands its potential,” Tim Hardy, general manager of Sunoco’s ethanol-manufacturing plant, said in the company’s news release.

Sunoco, Inc., owner of Sunoco Ethanol, is wholly owned by Dallas, Texas–based Energy Transfer Partners, L.P. (NYSE: ETP).

The company markets motor fuels through more than 4,800 Sunoco-branded locations in 26 states, according to its news release.

Contact Reinhardt at ereinhardt@cnybj.com