BUSINESS REVIEW

RENEWABLE ENERGY - Ethanol

Todd Becker, President & Chief Executive Officer, Green Plains Renewable Energy, Inc.

Green Plains Renewable Energy, Inc. enjoyed rapid growth to emerge as a leading force within the biofuels industry and today operates the fourth largest corn-based ethanol production capacity in North America. NTR’s shareholding in this NASDAQ listed organisation is 45%.

Todd Becker
President &
Chief Executive Officer
Green Plains Renewable
Energy, Inc.
Todd has over 20 years experience in various commodity processing businesses, risk management and international trading in ethanol and agricultural markets.
Ethanol Production Capacity. 2009 480MGY. 2008 220MGY. 150 acquired subsequent to the year.

 

Over the past twelve months, GPRE has successfully driven its unique strategy to diversify its income stream across an integrated platform from grain sourcing and storage, through to ethanol production, marketing and distribution. Major achievements this year include the commissioning of two state-of-the-art 110 million gallon ethanol production plants in Bluffton, Indiana and Obion, Tennessee, as well as acquiring two further high quality plants that provide a combined 150 million gallons capacity, located in Nebraska. Today, GPRE has an annual production capacity of 480 million gallons.

 

Other key advancements over the past year in building out the integrated platform include the addition of Blendstar to GPRE’s portfolio, which provides ethanol blending and distribution terminals across five states, and the development of North America’s leading third party marketing platform, with over 300 million gallons of production under contract.

 

In line with its significant growth, GPRE has developed a proprietary world-class risk management platform to lock in margins on a transaction by transaction basis and minimise exposure to any movements in commodity or fuel prices. By using a variety of risk management and hedging strategies, a disciplined approach to margin management is adhered to, which has assisted GPRE in its successful navigation of relatively volatile trading conditions during the first half of the year.

 

GPRE is committed to advancing research on “next generation” biofuels and carbon capture. In November 2008, GPRE announced, together with NTR plc, the formation of a joint venture to commercialise algae production. The joint venture is being undertaken with water treatment and filtration specialists, Clarcor Inc and BioProcessH20 and is developing advanced photobioreactor technology to produce algae at a pilot plant located at GPRE’s Shenandoah ethanol facility, sustained by the plant’s recycled heat, water and carbon dioxide. The joint venture illustrates the business’ long-term commitment to finding sustainable solutions to clean fuels source production.

GPRE has the capacity to provide enough ethanol to support over 1 million passenger cars on north american roads with an alternative green fuel source. Recognised for its green energy properties as an advanced biofuel and its ability to sequester carbon, algae is gaining global interest. But it’s proving difficult to grow economically. To address this dilemma, ntr and green plains are co-funding a joint venture with leading water filtration expert clarcor, to find ways to cost-effectively produce algae while sequestering optimal levels of carbon dioxide.