US agri-business Green Plains Inc. has announced that it has donated industrial ethanol from its York, Nebraska (NE) corn ethanol facility to the Nebraska Department of Correctional Services (NDCS) for the use in the production of hand sanitizer.
Headquartered in Omaha, Nebraska (NE), Green Plains is a diversified commodity-processing business with operations that include corn processing, grain handling and storage, and commodity marketing and logistics services.
Operating ten biorefineries that process around 1o million tonnes of corn to produce over 1 billion (US) gallons (≈ 3.8 billion litres) of ethanol annually, the company is also one of the largest ethanol producers in the United States (US).
It has never been more imperative for Green Plains employees to help support local communities and do our part in mitigating the spread of COVID-19. With a severe shortage of hand sanitizer, donating our industrial ethanol to the state of Nebraska is the least we could do in this challenging environment, said Todd Becker, President, and CEO of Green Plains Inc.
The donated product is made at Green Plains’ York facility, which currently produces 50 million gallons (≈ 189.2 million litres) of 200-proof industrial ethanol for use in global markets each year. With the increased need for hand sanitizer, the company is now focusing its efforts to help communities in Nebraska and across the country where there are shortages of this product.
Once the hand sanitizer is produced at NDCS, it will be given to high priority facilities impacted by the coronavirus.
