A South Dakota corn ethanol plant will soon begin producing a fuel additive with a wider variety of uses.
Tom Hitchcock, chief executive of Redfield Energy, said the 50 million gallon-per-year plant is teaming with Englewood, Colo.-based Gevo to convert the facility in Redfield to a 40 million gallon-per-year butanol plant using the same 18 million bushels of corn a year.
Hitchcock said each gallon of butanol contains more energy than a gallon of ethanol.
“You use the same amount of corn to get a more valuable product,” he said.
South Dakota legislators this week approved extending a 20-cents-per-gallon tax incentive forethanol plants to facilities that produce butanol, and the bill is expected to be signed by the governor. But because the statewide program is capped at $4 million, Hitchcock said, the benefit to the Redfield plant actually amounts to about a penny a gallon.