Monroe, WI (January 3, 2020) – Badger State Ethanol LLC (BSE) proudly announces the company has surpassed 1 billion gallons of ethanol production at its 85 million-gallon-per-year facility in Monroe, Wisconsin. BSE began production in 2002 with a nameplate capacity of 40 million gallons per year.
To put 1 billion gallons in perspective, Erik Huschitt, CEO and General Manager of BSE, said, “In a vehicle that gets 23 miles per gallon, you could go around the earth 923,000 times and at 60 miles per hour, it’d take you 43,750 years to complete.”
Although the ethanol industry has had more than its fair share of challenges over the past year, Huschitt said reaching this milestone is a great opportunity to accentuate the good ethanol brings to local communities and the agricultural economy, as well as his appreciation for the support the company’s received along the way.
“I thank all of the investors who have believed in us, the community that supports us, the consumers who buy our end products, in both ethanol and feed, and the organizations that support the agenda that helps make this possible,” Huschitt said. “We certainly didn’t do this alone, and we express our gratitude to all of those who helped us reach this milestone.”
Since its inception, BSE has returned value to its local investors, employs 50 people with high-skill, high-wage jobs, and provided a value-added market for area Wisconsin corn producers as well as a local outlet for commercial operations to conduct their grain business. BSE’s 1 billion gallons of ethanol production has provided a market for over 350 million bushels of corn.
BSE is one of nine ethanol plants in Wisconsin that together have a capacity of 585 million gallons per year and contribute over $1 billion to the state GDP. Wisconsin’s ethanol and DDGs production is valued at around $1 billion and its corn production at $1.66 billion, with ethanol having a $533 million impact on state household incomes. As the ninth-largest ethanol producing state in the country, Wisconsin’s ethanol industry employees 7,745 full-time employees.
Nationally, the U.S. produced 16.1 billion gallons of ethanol and 43 million metric tons of co-products and distillers’ oil in 2018 which had substantial economic impacts, including over 71,000 direct jobs, nearly 300,000 indirect and induced jobs, and a $46 billion contribution for GDP. Based on average prices and product yields in 2018, a typical dry mill ethanol plant was adding nearly $2 of additional value or 55 percent to every bushel of corn processed.
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