ADM has been a world leader in BioEnergy since we first began producing corn-based ethanol in 1978. Upon completion of our two new corn dry mills in Columbus, Nebraska, and Cedar Rapids, Iowa, targeted for 2009, our total U.S. ethanol production output will reach 1.65 billion gallons per year. Our existing ethanol plants are located in Walhalla, North Dakota; Marshall, Minnesota; Cedar Rapids and Clinton, Iowa; and Peoria and Decatur, Illinois. Meanwhile, our domestic biodiesel fuel plant in Velva, North Dakota, and the facility we own jointly with Mid-America Biofuels in Mexico, Missouri, are producing more than 110 million gallons of this cleaner-burning fuel each year.
At the same time, ADM researchers are working both independently and in conjunction with partners at leading academic institutions and at major energy and agriculture companies to develop new, even more energy-efficient biofuels from plentiful, low-value sources such as grasses, wood and crop residues.
Our research partnership with Deere & Company and Monsanto Company seeks to identify economically and environmentally sustainable methods for collecting, storing and transporting the stalks, cobs and leaves of corn plants in order to make it feasible and cost-effective to use these materials for the production of biofuels and animal feeds, and as biomass feedstocks for the generation of steam and electricity.
An alliance with ConocoPhillips aims to overcome barriers to converting biomass into biocrude, a renewable crude oil that can be turned into gasoline in existing refineries and transported through existing fuel-delivery networks. And in conjunction with scientists at Purdue University with the support of the U.S. Department of Energy, ADM is working to commercialize a fermentation process that uses highly efficient yeast to convert cellulosic materials into ethanol fuel.
