INDUSTRY
ven as guarded companies go, Archer Daniels Midland Co. keeps company information extremely close to the vest. The company refrains from publicizing any capacity numbers associated with its individual plants, choosing instead to report its production total as a single sum of 1.1 billion gallons per year that it attributes to its Decatur, Ill, headquarters. When asked for individual plant capacities, ADM officials say they don’t distinguish between plants. Early in 2008, EPM was able to confirm, through various state environmental regulatory agencies, the nameplate capacity of each of ADM’s plants, which when added up equals 1,215 MMgy. The list includes what are now revealed to be three of the largest ethanol plants in the country. The three wet mills in Decatur (290 MMgy), Clinton, Iowa, (237 MMgy) and Cedar Rapids, Iowa, (420 MMgy) account for 947 MMgy of ADM’s overall capacity, or roughly 80 percent of its total production. Although these numbers have been verified by third-party sources, ADM declined to comment on the figures, or to be quoted in this feature. Also, these plants may not be producing at nameplate capacity. In July 2007, ADM announced plans to build two 275 MMgy dry-mill ethanol plants adjacent to its existing Cedar Rapids and Columbus, Neb., wet-mill facilities. For most ethanol industry observers, that announcement is consistent with the company’s commitment to biofuels. The two plants combined will add 550 MMgy to ADM’s current nameplate capacity of 1,215 MMgy for a grand total of 1,765 MMgy.
E
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Plant Name
MMgy
Status
Cedar Rapids, Iowa
420
Nameplate
Cedar Rapids, Iowa
275
Q3 2009
Clinton, Iowa
237
Nameplate
Columbus, Neb.
100
Nameplate
Columbus, Neb.
275
Q4 2008
Decatur, Ill.
290
Nameplate
Marshall, Minn.
40
Nameplate
Peoria, Ill.
100
Nameplate
Walhalla, N.D.
28
Nameplate
1,765 TOTAL
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Mega Complex Estimates With these new plant capacity numbers, the unearthing of ADM’s plan for Cedar Rapids, where the bigger of the two new plants is being built, is especially significant. The new plant is a dry mill designed to be expandable up to 400 MMgy. The current 420 MMgy plant, a coal-fired, wet-mill
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ETHANOL PRODUCER MAGAZINE JUNE 2008