Clean Tech Company Announces Delta Facility
GREENVILLE, MS (Nov 3, 2009)- Ed Johnson, Chief Executive Officer of The Delta Economic Development Center (
http://www.deltaedc.com/) announced today that International Silica Technologies, LLC (IST) has signed a Letter of Intent to co-site its initial StratoSil® high-purity silica production facility with Producers Rice Mill (Producers) in Greenville, Mississippi. In addition to the new IST plant at the Producers rice mill, an associated off-site facility will serve as the company headquarters and distribution center. Pending successful financing, IST projects to break ground on the facility in early 2010, with production commencing in early 2011.
International Silica Technologies, LLC was founded in 2003, based on novel technology that extracts high quality amorphous silica as well as renewable thermal energy from rice hulls, a byproduct of the milling process. Potential markets for the new silica product, brand-named StratoSil®, include toothpaste, adsorbents, coatings & inks, cosmetics, and rubber. Pre-treated rice hulls are combusted during the process to produce an excess of renewable energy, which can be used for co-sited industrial processing or converted to electricity for delivery to local power grids. Producers will use the energy generated from the IST facility to displace natural gas in its rice processing operations.
IST co-founder and technology developer Larry Shipley commented, “The patented IST process is the ultimate green technology, producing high-quality silica and renewable energy from lower-value rice hulls and straw.” President & Chief Operating Officer Randall Powell added, “We are pleased to partner with Producers Rice Mill to bring the initial IST commercial facility to Greenville. At full production rates, we expect to create 60 direct jobs at our plant, and an equal number of indirect jobs in the community.”
In making the announcement, Ed Johnson stated, “International Silica Technologies, LLC is a region-based company with global technology applications in the Agritech vertical market. Since Agritech is one of our targeted industries in Washington County, we couldn’t be more thrilled to have a company of this caliber expand upon our region’s history of agriculture and technology.”
Producers Rice Mill is a 2500 member cooperative which was established in 1943 and expanded its operations to Greenville in 2001. Based in Stuttgart, Arkansas, Producers is a full-line processor of quality rice products, serving all major divisions of the rice industry and is one of the largest private label packagers in the country, supplying over 100 brands for major food chains and distributors.
FOR MORE INFO CONTACT:
Ed Johnson
662.378.3141
ejohnson@deltaedc.com
