Annawan ethanol plant begins international shipments

ANNAWAN — Patriot Renewable Fuels CEO/Chairman Gene Griffith recently announced the company has begun to ship containerized shipments of Distillers Dried Grains as a way to add value to the company.

“Being located on Interstate 80 and not far from the Chicagoland container and railroad yards, we can economically load containers and ship to Asian countries,” Griffith said in a press release. “Just in the first week containers have left bound for destinations in Thailand, Taiwan and China.”

Griffith said Chicago is the third largest container port in the world and thousands of containers bring imported consumer goods and various materials into the region each month.

“Instead of shipping containers back empty to Asia, we have been able to partner with our DDGS marketer to export a value-added commodity in these 40-foot containers,” Griffith said.

The process of loading a container takes approximately 20 minutes and each container is sampled by a USDA-APHIS certified inspector. This documentation allows for international shipment as the container is transported by truck back to Chicago, taken to a rail yard and then sent by rail to southern California. From there, the container is loaded onto a steamship and travels across the sea to foreign buyers.

“Traditionally many bushels of corn were always exported down the Illinois and Mississippi rivers but now Patriot has the ability to process corn into valued-added DDGS and ethanol, generating revenue and more jobs in our local economy,” Griffith said. “DDGS is a co-product of the ethanol production and is a high quality livestock feed. On an annual basis operating at nameplate capacity Patriot expects to produce 320,000 tons of DDGS which can feed over half a million head of cattle. Our facility contributes greatly to products consumers demand around the world — feed, fuel and food.”