Green Plains Renewable Energy
Green Plains is a vertically-integrated ethanol producer based in Omaha, Nebraska with an ethanol production capacity of approximately 740 million gallons per year with its nine plants located in Bluffton, Indiana; Central City, Nebraska; Fergus Falls, Minnesota; Lakota, Iowa; Obion, Tennessee; Ord, Nebraska; Riga, Michigan; Shenandoah, Iowa; and Superior, Iowa. Green Plains also operates an independent third party ethanol marketing business, Green Plains Trade, for which it has 260 million gallons of annual production under contract. In total, Green Plains markets and distributes over 1 billion gallons of corn-based ethanol per year, making Green Plains the fourth largest producer of fuel grade ethanol in North America.
Distillers grains are an important co-product of Green Plains’ ethanol production. At capacity its plants will produce approximately 2.1 million tons of distillers grains annually that will be used as a high-protein, high-energy animal fodder and feed supplement. Corn oil is also a co-product of ethanol production that is being extracted at six of its plants. Corn oil is sold to biodiesel manufacturers and to feed lot and poultry markets.
Green Plains also provides agribusiness services through its subsidiary, Green Plains Grain. Green Plains Grain is a full-service agribusiness organisation that specialises in grain, agronomy and petroleum products in Iowa, Missouri and western Tennessee. Green Plains Grain has grain storage capacity of approximately 33 million bushels that are used to support its grain merchandising activities, as well as its ethanol plant operations. By incorporating this business segment into its operations, Green Plains believes it increases efficiencies and reduces commodity price and supply risks.
Adding to its platform, Green Plains acquired a majority interest in a biofuel terminal operator Blendstar based in Houston, Texas in January 2009. The Blendstar platform allows customers to source, store and blend ethanol and biodiesel to meet growing demand, now and in the future. Blendstar currently has terminals with a total annual throughput capacity of more than 495 million gallons per year.
Green Plains is part of a joint venture called BioProcess Algae to commercialise algae production technology. In addition to Green Plains, the other partners in the venture are CLARCOR Inc., Bioprocess H2O, and NTR plc. The project, located at Green Plains in Shenandoah, Iowa, received a grant from the Iowa Office of Energy Independence totaling $4.1 million.