EPCO Carbon Dioxide Products, Inc., announced Monday that it will be removing its liquification equipment and leaving the Aurora West site due to the inability of the Nebraska Energy ethanol plant to provide its core product.

Company president Ric Wiesemann explained that EPCO typically produces about 240 tons of food-grade liquid carbon dioxide per day, though production ground to a halt when Nebraska Energy shut down July 1.

"We’re dismantling the plant and moving to another location in Nebraska," Wiesemann said in a phone interview. "It’s been a great run, but unfortunately the supply situation from the ethanol plant is not going to be there in the near term. We have to react."

Wiesemann said he waited as long as he could, hoping Nebraska Energy would resume production, but on Friday decided he could wait no longer.

"I don’t have a firm date for their planned restart. That’s the problem," he said. "In our business, we can’t wait until we hear a negative response."

The seven local EPCO staff members will be retained, he added, but will no longer be based out of Aurora.

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