Valero Renewables-Linden is located near Linden, Ind., about 60 miles northwest of Indianapolis. The bio-refinery sits on approximately 80 acres and started ethanol production in August 2007. The facility uses a dry-grind production method and state-of-the-art technology to maintain industry-leading standards in production, safety, product quality and environmental stewardship. The Linden plant annually processes nearly 43 million bushels of corn into 120 million gallons of denatured ethanol and 370,000 tons of distillers grains co-products. The bio-refinery has a nameplate capacity of 110 million gallons of ethanol per year and employs approximately 60 full-time personnel.
The entire kernel of corn is converted to ethanol or distillers grains. Ethanol is an environmentally friendly, high-octane renewable fuel produced by fermenting converted corn starch with yeast. It is used as a blending agent with gasoline. Distillers grains are the co-product left after the ethanol is removed from fermented corn mash, and are sold as a valuable livestock feed. Distillers grains are high in protein, fat, vitamins and minerals, making an excellent feed supplement for beef and dairy cattle, swine and poultry. The Linden plant markets both dried distillers grains with solubles (DDGS) and modified (or wet) distillers grains with solubles (MDGS).
The plant timeline:
- December 2004 – Plans for the plant conceived
- June 2005 – Plans announced for construction
- January 2006 – Groundbreaking held and construction began
- July 2007 – Owner ASAlliances Biofuels Inc. sold site to VeraSun Energy Corp.
- August 2007 – VeraSun completed construction and began production
- January 2010 – Valero Renewables acquired plant