AUDIO: Managing Director at Summit Agricultural Group Justin Kirchhoff
A new corn-only ethanol plant launches in Brazil and it has ties to Iowa. FS Bioenergia is Brazil?s first corn-only plant. It?s based in South America?s corn powerhouse Mato Grosso, Brazil. Summit Agricultural Group of Alden, Iowa along with Fiagril a Brazilian company, invested $115 million into the plant.
?We started initial discussions with our partner company Fiagril in 2014 thinking corn ethanol made a lot of sense in the country. Took that discussion to the next stage in the spring of 2016 and started construction on a 60-million-gallon ethanol plant which we started up in June of this year,? Justin Kirchhoff Managing Director at Summit Agricultural Group said.
?One of the things we wanted to focus on is technology that has been proven in the U.S. The ethanol plants in the U.S. work on ICM-based technology out of Kansas and that is the technology we utilize with this plant in Brazil.?
Around 150 employees will be able to produce 63 million gallons of ethanol each year, generate 60,000 megawatts of power, and 6,200 tons of corn oil. The plant can process 22 million bushels of corn during the first phase and 45 million during the second phase.
