Midwest AgEnergy - the parent company to ethanol biorefineries Blue Flint, near Underwood, N.D., and Dakota Spirit, near Spiritwood, N.D. - recently surpassed production of more than 1 billion gallons of ethanol produced company-wide.
"Congratulations and thank you to our employees at Midwest AgEnergy," said Jeff Zueger, CEO of Midwest AgEnergy. "We are proud of the commitment and engagement that our employees exhibit every day. Those efforts enabled us to achieve this historic milestone."
To put the ethanol production into perspective, the biorefineries consumed approximately 357 million bushels of North Dakota corn. That much corn delivery would require a convoy of trucks approximately 4,060 miles long - or about one-sixth of the distance around Earth.
"At Midwest AgEnergy, we're committed to providing a stable market for home-grown North Dakota corn while creating a valuable fuel for consumers," said Phil Coffin, vice president and chief marketing officer. "For example, blended into gasoline at a 10 percent rate, our ethanol production would have fueled 21 million automobiles for a year."
Both refineries are co-located next to Great River Energy's electric power generation facilities and utilize low-grade power generation steam for producing ethanol. Midwest AgEnergy is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Great River Energy.
Great River Energy is able to keep its energy costs competitive by producing products that add value for its 28 member-owner cooperatives.
