Koda Energy Demolition and Reconstruction Underway in Shakopee

Koda Energy began demolition of its biomass facility in Shakopee on Thursday in accordance with its plan to construct a new facility.

The explosion at Koda Energy in April of this year shut down the facility as the company began work with engineers to conduct a safety assessment.

Koda Energy uses agricultural and plant byproducts to produce energy in an environmentally-friendly way.

The April explosion was the second in less than 12 months. The most recent explosion began in two of the silos, which stored rough materials such as wood chips and ground up wood pallets. The seven employees present at the time of the blast were safely evacuated and no one was injured. 

The fire still burned five days later.

After the safety assessment, Koda Energy, a joint partnership between the Shakopee Mdewakanton Sioux Community (SMSC) and Rahr Malting Co. decided to redesign the facility. 

According to a release from the SMSC: 

Koda Energy has opted for a new horizontal system inside a two-story unloading and storage building connected to the existing fuel processing facility.  This lower-profile design will bring many benefits, including:

• Improved safety
• Reduced particulate emissions by 20%
• Increased reliability
• More efficient fuel unloading

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