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ADM: bioethanol carbon capture facility supports sustainable farming and new markets

The plant manager for the world’s largest bioethanol carbon capture plant says their facility presents new opportunities for farmers.

Todd Good with ADM says the Columbus, Nebraska, facility creates additional processing capacity and demand for corn. “Ethanol in and of itself has been for a long time a somewhat oversupplied industry. Depending on what the margins are at any given time, we may decide to run below our name-plate capacity. This allows us to change to where we are running closer to that.”

The project captures carbon dioxide from ADM’s ethanol plant and transports it through Tallgrass’s Trailblazer pipeline to a secure underground storage site in Wyoming.

Good tells Brownfield the process creates a more sustainable and environmentally healthy product. “What this CO2 sequestration effectively does is it will lower the carbon intensity of our ethanol, and what we hope that will make it more attractive for different end uses.”

As an example, he says it could help produce sustainable aviation fuel. “One pathway to get to SAF is through ethanol. To be able to do that, carbon sequestration is important.”

The pipeline can transport over 10 million tons of CO2 annually — roughly equivalent to removing 2 million passenger vehicles from the road — helping support sustainable farming and biofuel production.