This locally owned ethanol plant is supporting the economy of its surrounding communities.

Al-Corn Clean Fuel, located in Claremont, Minn., is an ethanol plant owned by local farmers and investors who provide the grain used in the fuel-making process. Profits generated by the sale of ethanol and distillers’ dried grains (DDGs) support the economy of the local communities.

Ethanol, primarily a product of industrial corn, can be blended with gasoline or used for automobile fuel. Ethanol’s high oxygen content allows automobile engines to better combust fuel, resulting in reduced tailpipe emissions.

High corn prices in January and February have had a slight impact on the company, as the company receives a percentage of the corn it needs from its local farmers and growers that live less than an hour away. According to the company’s March 2007 newsletter, Randall Doyal, general manager and CEO of Al-Corn, said the company last year grounded close to 13 million bushels of corn to produce an estimated 36.8 million gallons of fuel ethanol and a little more than 100,000 tons of DDGs. The plant operated 8,552 hours for an uptime average of 97.63% in 2006.

In compliance
Al-Corn, a cooperative, has grown dramatically since inception in 1996. At that time, the plant was producing nearly 10 million gallons of ethanol per year. The 35 million-gallon-per-year ethanol plant recently received approval to produce 45 million gallons a year. According to a report by Minnesota Public Radio, the state has a little less than 20 ethanol plants. The industry’s popularity is on the rise; in July of 2006, the US ethanol industry surpassed the 100-plant mark, producing more than 4.6 million gallons a year.

In 2002, Al-Corn, along with 12 other plants in Minnesota, made an agreement with the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to install air pollution control equipment to greatly reduce air emissions, such as volatile organic compounds (VOCs), by 2,400 to 4,000 tons per year and carbon monoxide (CO) emissions by 2,000 tons per year. During the ethanol manufacturing process, dry mills burn off gases, which emit volatile organic compounds and carbon monoxide into the air. In addition to contributing to ground-level ozone (smog), VOCs can cause serious health problems such as cancer and other effects; CO is harmful because it reduces oxygen delivery to the body’s organs and tissues.

“The Minnesota plants are leading the way by installing the appropriate controls and greatly reducing their emissions. These settlements will set the standard in the ethanol manufacturing industry and we hope others will follow quickly,” said John Peter Suarez, EPA’s Assistant Administrator for Enforcement and Compliance Assurance.