Canadian-based Dairy Distillery, which got its start distilling a milk byproduct into spirits and a large cooperative owned by Great Lakes dairy farmers, broke ground on a new plant in southern Michigan that will unite their businesses to make ethanol.
While most U.S. ethanol is corn-based, Dairy Distillery from Ontario and the Michigan Milk Producers Association have a different idea. They’re building a new facility near Constantine, Michigan in St. Joseph County just north of the border from Indiana. The plant will repurpose milk permeate, a byproduct of dairy goods production, into biofuel.
“Utilizing milk permeate to produce low-carbon ethanol is an innovative solution to reduce our carbon footprint and provide dairy farmers with more value for their milk,” says Omid McDonald, Dairy Distillery CEO.
The $41 million plant will go online in 2025 and take 14,000 tons of the dairy byproduct, using it to produce 2.2 million gallons of ethanol.
“This marks a significant step forward in sustainability,” says MMPA President and CEO Joe Diglio.
Source: NAFB News Service
