Another ethanol company in Kansas has run into trouble.</p><p>The lender that financed construction of <strong>Gateway Ethanol LLC&#8217;s</strong> 55 million-gallon ethanol plant near Pratt, Kan., has moved to foreclose on the facility.</p><p><strong>Dougherty Funding LLC</strong>, which is based in Minneapolis, agreed to lend Gateway $54.3 million in March 2006. In a complaint filed Tuesday in federal court in Kansas City, it said that Gateway had defaulted on the loan agreement.</p><p>Gateway is 62 percent owned by <strong>Orion Ethanol Inc.</strong>, a publicly held company based in Pratt, which is about 80 miles west of Wichita. In an April 17 filing with the <strong>Securities and Exchange Commission</strong>, Orion said it had received a notice of default from Dougherty on April 11. The notice said Gateway had failed to make payments totaling $2.025 million and had not met various performance standards.</p><p>Gateway also secured a $7 million loan from <strong>Lurgi PSI Inc. </strong>of Memphis, Tenn., which provided design, engineering and construction services for the Pratt facility. Dougherty&#8217;s complaint says its loan is senior to that of Lurgi.</p><p>The ethanol plant began operating Nov. 5. Orion says the plant has the capacity to process more than 21 million bushels of corn and grain sorghum annually.</p><p>Gateway&#8217;s default comes shortly after <strong>Alternative Energy Sources Inc.</strong>, a publicly owned ethanol company based in Kansas City, said that it would cease operations unless it comes up with funding.</p><p>In March, <strong>Ethanex Energy Inc.</strong> of Basehor, Kan., declared bankruptcy. Late last year, <strong>E3 BioFuels LLC </strong>of Shawnee, an ethanol producer with a plant in Nebraska, did the same.</p><p>Ethanol producers nationwide have been battered by surging prices for feedstock corn, the source of most ethanol, and lower ethanol prices resulting from oversupply.