Ace Ethanol passes 20 years of production in Stanley

The Beginning: Even after 20-years, I still get questions about the Ace Ethanol plant and its operations. Ace Ethanol LLC was Wisconsin's first large scale producer of ethanol and this year marks 20 years since they began production in June 2002. Con- struction of the original plant in Stanley began in 2001. During its beginning and until fully productive, a CO2 plant was built and dry ice was produced as a co-product. In 2004, the plants capacity was increased to produce 30 million gallons of ethanol annually. In 2005, Ace established a grain receiving site called Four-Corners, which is located south of New Richmond. This corn receiving station has a storage capacity of 1.3 million bushels of corn and this allowed around the clock production. Ace added a defunct ethanol plant in Oshkosh in 2013. Known at the time of acquisition as Utica Energy, it was renamed Fox River Valley Ethanol LLC. Today, Ace’s Stanley plant produces 54 million gallons per year and its Fox River Valley plant produces 65 million gallons per year. These two Ace plants are among a total of nine ethanol plants operating in Wisconsin. *** The Process Ace Uses in Making Ethanol: Kernels of corn are ground into flour to expose the starch in the corn. The flour is mixed with recycled water and heated to make corn mash. Al – pha-amylase enzyme is added and converts the corn starch into long-chain sugars. The mash goes into large tanks where yeast is added to begin a process called fermentation. Yeast consumes the glucose in the fermentation to produce beer containing eth- anol and carbon dioxide. Carbon dioxide from the fermentation process is collected, cleaned, and compressed into a liquid and then sold for industrial processes, food processing, and beverage carbonation. The beer goes to distillation columns where the ethanol is boiled off and purified to 200 proof fuel grade ethanol. Corn is collected from the leftover liquid and is sold to make animal feed and biodiesel. Leftover corn fiber is treated and goes through a second fermentation process to produce cellulosic ethanol. Leftover corn solids are dried and sold as high protein an- imal feed called Dried Distillers Grains with Solubles (DDGS). So in a nut-shell, with inputs of corn, enzymes and yeast fuel grade ethanol, carbon dioxide, cellulosic ethanol, corn oil and high protein animal feed are produced. It's pretty amazing what a kernel of corn can produce. (Much of the process information contained here came from an informative printout provided at an Ace booth at the 2022 Farm Expo held at Menard's Expo Center in Eau Claire). *** How Ethanol Feeds the World: The Renewable Fuels Association points out that the ethanol industry provides an enormous supply of high-protein animal grain for livestock, poultry, and aqua-culture production across the globe. In 2021, U. S. ethanol producers generated 35.4 million metric tons of distillers grains, gluten feed and gluten meal. In addition, biorefineries extracted over 3.8 billion pounds of corn distillers oil, a $2.1 billion market under-pinning the production of biodiesel, renewable diesel and poultry feed. As dietary trends continue to evolve around the world, U. S. ethanol producers continue to embrace new technologies that further enhance the nutritive qualities of animal feed co-products. New processes that concentrate the protein content of distillers grains, improve amino acid profiles and reduce ex cess fat content are transforming the industry and opening new market opportunities. *** U. S. biorefineries satisfied growing domestic animal feed needs while also exporting about a third of distillers grains pro –

duced. In, 2021, more than 50 countries purchased a cumulative 11.6 metric tons of U. S. distillers grains. Half of these exports were shipped to Southeast and East Asia. About 20 percent of distillers grains exports were shipped to Mexico, the United States top importer for the fifth straight year. *** The Wisconsin Role: The following are the Wisconsin Ethanol producers and how much each produces. Ace Ethanol, Stanley, 54 million gallons a year (MGY); Badger State, Monroe, 90 MGY; Big River Resources, Boyceville, 62 MGY; Didion Etha – nol, Cambria, 50 MGY; Fox River Valley Ethanol, Oshkosh, 65 MGY; Marquis Energy Wisconsin, Necedah, 50 MGY; United Ethanol, Horicon, 62 MGY; United Wisconsin Grain Producers, Friesland, 60 MGY; Valero Renewable Fuels Co., Jefferson, 110 MGY. Together the annual production of ethanol in Wisconsin totals 545 million gallons per year. They also produce 1.9 million tons of distillers grain. Wisconsin produces just 3 percent of the total ethanol capacity in the United States. *** Economic Impact: In Wisconsin there are 22,212 farms growing corn and they produce 450 million bushels of corn annually. The value of that corn production is $1.7 billion. And of the corn produced 42% is used by the ethanol industry. The value of the ethanol and distillers grains produced by the ethanol plants in Wisconsin is $941 million. The full-time jobs supported by ethanol production are 12,924. Ethanol’s impact of Wisconsin household incomes is $771 million. In Wisconsin, we use 2.65 billion gallons of gasoline a year. That includes 278 million gallons of ethanol or a 10.5 percent blending rate. That the Renewable Fuels Association reports creates a $876 million dollar gasoline savings and 1.0 million tons of avoided CO2 emissions. The number of Wisconsin stations offering E85 are 345 and E15 stations number 203. *** The Future: Ace Ethanol has announced that they have be- gun construction of the first D3MAX Plant in Wisconsin at their Stanley location. Ace Ethanol will be the first ethanol plant to integrate the patented D3MAX technology with its existing corn dry mill. What this means is this cutting edge technology allows converting corn fiber and residual starch in distillers grains to cellulosic ethanol. This is a 1.3 billion gallon per year market and with D3MAX ethanol producers can maximize their yield and profits. *** Smile time. Sleazy Tom prepared a pasta dish for a dinner party he was giving. In his haste, however, he forgot to refrigerate the spaghetti sauce, and it sat on the counter all day. He was worried about spoilage, but it was too late to cook up another batch. He called the local Poison Control Center and voiced his concern. They advised him to boil the sauce again. That night, the phone rang during the dinner, and a guest volunteered to answer it. Sleazy's face dropped as the guest called out, "It's the Poison Control Center. The want to know how the spaghetti sauce turned out.” +++ Two Norwegian hunters from Minnesota flew to Canada to hunt moose. They bagged six. As they started to load the plane for the return home, the pilot said they could only take four. Objecting strongly they preyed upon the pilot saying last year they shot six and the pilot allowed them to take all six. Reluctantly, the pilot gave in. However, even with full power the little plane couldn’t handle the load and went down a few moments after take-off. Climbing out the wreck the Norski asked the other, “Any idea where we are?” “Yeah, I think we’re pretty close to where we crashed last year.”

BY DAVID JANKOSKI