A Canadian company that got its start distilling a milk byproduct into spirits and a large cooperative owned by Great Lakes dairy farmers broke ground on a new Michigan plant that will unite their businesses to make ethanol. While most U.S. ethanol is corn-based, Ontario-based Dairy Distillery and the Michigan Milk Producers Association have a different idea. They’re building a new facility near Constantine, Michigan, which will repurpose milk permeate, a byproduct of dairy goods production.
“Utilizing milk permeate to produce low-carbon ethanol is an innovative solution to reduce our carbon footprint and provide dairy farmers with more value for their milk,” says Omid McDonald, Dairy Distillery CEO. The $41 million plant will go online in 2025 and take 14,000 tons of the dairy byproduct, using it to produce 2.2 million gallons of ethanol. “This marks a significant step forward in sustainability,” says MMPA President and CEO Joe Diglio.
