YORK — Omaha-based ethanol producer Green Plains recently unveiled a new demonstration facility within its York ethanol plant that will combine its refinery technology with technology from Shell, a London-based oil company.
The facility combines Green Plains tech, which separates corn kernels into their various components, with Shell’s new 15-years-in-the-making technology that converts corn kernel components into other products, including corn oil, cellulosic sugars for low-carbon fuels and high-protein animal feed.
“It’s a game-changing technology,” Green Plains CEO Todd Becker said, “and this is the first place we’re doing it.”
Becker called the collaboration a “modern day bio refinery.” The process is what Green Plains and Shell executives called “third generation” ethanol processing, which they say has the potential to extract even more value from each corn kernel.
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Shell has invested $90 million in the collaboration, making it Shell’s first major investment in Nebraska, according to Green Plains CFO Jim Stark.
Sinead Lynch, senior vice president for Shell’s global low carbon fuels business, said the collaboration in York is part of Shell’s goal of being a net zero emissions company by 2050.
As a demonstration facility, the plant will not be selling these end-products commercially but will instead be producing data for researchers to analyze. Depending on the results from the research, Green Plains and Shell will decide whether or not to commercialize the process.
"This is one of the first times that we’ve seen a partnership like this take place,” Becker said, referring to the collaboration between major ethanol producer Green Plains and oil giant Shell.
Green Plains purchased the York ethanol plant, which houses one of its innovation centers, in 2016. It broke ground on the new demonstration facility in 2022 and hopes to have it fully operational in the late summer.
Green Plains and Shell showed off the facility to Gov. Jim Pillen and Sens. Deb Fischer and Pete Ricketts on Monday.
“It’s astonishing what’s being made out of corn,” Pillen said. “It’s going to be awesome for Nebraska, it’s going to be great for our country and it’s going to be great for our planet.”