Opinion ID: 1612232
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 24

Heading: Boyd Ruppelt

Text: Boyd Ruppelt, a senior project manager for PSI, Process Systems in Memphis, Tennessee, testified on behalf of Roles. Ruppelt testified that PSI, Process Systems specializes in proc-essing corn into ethanol. In September 1997 and again in November 1997, he and a professional engineer viewed the Sutherland plant. After viewing the plant, he prepared a report detailing the work necessary to complete the plant and the cost of such work. Ruppelt's report found that significant work still needed to be done to complete the original scope of the plant, that Occupational Safety and Health Administration and Environmental Protection Agency standards were not met, and that some of the equipment used at the plant was not properly installed and/or was not proper for the industry and needed to be replaced or changed. After detailing all of the specific wrongs he found at the plant, Ruppelt opined that $3.975 million in alterations were necessary before the plant could produce salable products and that another $1.74 million would be necessary if the short steep process did not work. On cross-examination, he admitted that in a 1993 report done for a potential buyer of the plant, his company recommended that the short steep process be tried. He also stated that he was not a licensed mechanical engineer and that at the time he viewed the plant, he could tell that some of the uncompleted tasks had been planned. He also testified that if the plant capacity was 18,000 bushels of corn per day and if it operated for 340 days per year, it would produce 17 million gallons of ethanol. He further admitted on crossexamination that the professional engineer who had accompanied him on his observation of the plant told him what items at the plant had not been done and that he was not completely familiar with all of the items. On redirect, he generally disagreed that a plant built as was the Sutherland plant could have a value of $30 million.