About Green Plains
Green Plains is a vertically-integrated ethanol producer based in Omaha, Nebraska. We currently have an ethanol production capacity of approximately 740 million gallons per year with our 9 plants located in Bluffton, Indiana; Central City, Nebraska; Fergus Falls, Minnesota; Lakota, Iowa; Obion, Tennessee; Ord, Nebraska; Riga, Michigan; Shenandoah, Iowa; and Superior, Iowa. We also operate an independent third party ethanol marketing business, Green Plains Trade, for which we have 260 million gallons of annual production under contract.
Distillers grains are an important co-product of Green Plains’ ethanol production. At capacity our 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 our plants. Corn oil is sold to biodiesel manufacturers and to feed lot and poultry markets.
Green Plains also provides agribusiness services through our Subsidiary – Green Plains Grain. Green Plains Grain is a full-service agribusiness organization that specializes in grain, agronomy, and petroleum products in Iowa, Missouri, Nebraska and western Tennessee. Green Plains Grain has grain storage capacity of approximately 39 million bushels that are used to support our grain merchandising activities, as well as our ethanol plant operations. We believe that incorporating this business segment into our operations increases efficiencies and reduces commodity price and supply risks.
To add to our platform, we acquired a biofuel terminal operator BlendStar in 2011. Before that, we acquired a majority interest 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. These facilities accept deliveries by both rail and truck, and offer the same quality controls, safety, security, and back office functionality of a major petroleum terminal.
Looking to next generation technology, Green Plains is part of a joint venture called BioProcess Algae to commercialize 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.
