While cars are not literally being fueled by milk, a unique partnership is transforming a dairy byproduct into the renewable fuel, ethanol, which is blended into gasoline.
Our neighboring dairy farmers in Michigan are partnering up with a Canadian distillery to make ethanol from the lactose-rich dairy byproduct, permeate.
Michigan Milk Producers Association and Ontario-based Dairy Distillery are the partners in the project. Dairy Distillery uses a technology to transform milk permeate into vodka. This high value use of permeate caught the attention of MMPA. Its Constantine facility produces 14,000 tons a year to be used for animal feed.
The partnership’s new plant will process milk permeate into 2.2 million gallons of ethanol a year or 6,000 gallons per day. When blended in E10, it will make 60,000 gallons of fuel a day. Using an average tank size of 13 gallons, it’s enough to fill 4,615 cars a day.
Construction on the ethanol plant is expected to begin in a few months with ethanol production happening by early 2025. MMPA President Joe Diglio tells Mid-West Farm Report this partnership can be a blueprint for other dairy organizations across the nation to innovate and enter new markets:
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