A new alliance plans to convert a milk byproduct into ethanol for sustainable aviation fuel.
Canadian-based Dairy Distillery CEO Omid McDonald tells Brownfield this isn’t the first time the technology has been used.
“In the ‘70s, there was a lot of focus on fermenting lactose to make ethanol to power cars during the oil crisis,” he shares. “Once the oil crisis disappeared, they couldn’t compete against corn ethanol and so the ideas disappeared. Now we’ve revisited it with the lens of carbon reduction.”
Head of the Michigan Milk Producers Association Joe Diglio says the cooperative wanted to find more value for the milk permeate left over from the ultra-filtering process at its Constantine plant.
“There was very little, if any value associated with that so we’re excited about selling energy in the ethanol market,” he explains.
In an interview with Brownfield following Tuesday’s groundbreaking, USDA Deputy Administrator John Berge said innovative projects like this are a great example of how the agriculture industry is leading climate solutions.
“We have around eight million dairy cattle in this country and they produce a lot of milk, there’s a lot of permeate produced,” he says. We’re not suggesting that all of that’s going to go to ethanol, but a good chunk of it could, and if it did, that would have a huge impact on sustainable aviation fuel, have a huge impact on low carbon ethanol for to fuel our vehicles.”
Once complete in 2025, the $41 million ethanol plant is expected to process 14,000 tons of milk permeate into more than two million gallons of ethanol and reduce the site’s carbon footprint by five percent.