Wash. Scrub. Repeat. With this global pandemic we have all experienced the enhanced need to ensure we have clean hands, but how do you do that when we are on the go and sanitizer is scarce? Green Plains, a Nebraska-based manufacturer of alcohol distilled specifically for the production of cleaners and disinfectants for more than 20 years, saw how much we needed their help and decided to lend a hand – a sanitized one, of course.
Todd Becker, President and Chief Executive Officer of Green Plains Inc. spoke of the company’s decision to donate their ethanol. “With a severe shortage of hand sanitizer, donating our industrial ethanol to the state of Nebraska is the least we could do in this challenging environment,” he explained about the decision made by Green Plains.
The donated product is made at Green Plains’ York facility, which currently produces 50 million gallons of 200-proof industrial ethanol for use in global markets each year. With the increased need for hand sanitizer, the company is now focusing its efforts to help communities in Nebraska and across the country where there are shortages of this product.
Green Plains also announced in August that they will supply high-grade alcohol to Reckitt Benckiser (RB), the makers of Lysol through 2021, for use in their production of various disinfectants.
“We are pleased to partner with Lysol to help fulfill their supply chain needs with our high-quality alcohol for products which are EPA approved for use against COVID-19,” said Becker. “With the recently announced upgrade of our York production facility to high-quality USP grade alcohol to be completed in the next 90 days, we believe our product will have a lasting place in the fight against COVID-19 and other viruses.”
In addition to the York facility, Green Plains announced they would be installing a separate 25 million gallon facility engineered and constructed by ICM, Inc. at their Wood River, Neb., site to produce FCC Grade alcohol for domestic and export markets and expects to upgrade the production process to produce USP Grade alcohol over the next four to six months. When complete, the upgrade to USP at Wood River will bring Green Plains’ total USP production capacity to approximately 75 million gallons per year.
Brian Vasa, Economic Development Consultant from Nebraska Public Power District stated, “Nebraska is fortunate to be the home of Green Plains corporate Headquarters and five of its thirteen ethanol plants producing millions of gallons of USP and fuel grade alcohol.”
For more information about Green Plains, visit www.gpreinc.com.