When thinking of a company that produces Ethanol, you are probably thinking of some small unknown company sitting in the middle of corn fields pumping out fuel. Yes it is true that many production refineries are in the corn belt of the US, mainly Iowa and Indiana. But at least half of the US production of Ethanol is outside of these two states. There is a Ethanol producer in New Mexico, two more in New York, a few more in California and at least one refinery in each of the upper Midwest states. There is also an Ethanol producer in two Southern states, Georgia and Louisiana.

These days being an Ethanol producer doesn’t mean you are at all small, or that you started your company just to produce Ethanol as a business. Archer Daniels Midland started out as an agriculture business and added being an Ethanol producer to its capacity as a side line; this has now become one of their main business ventures and makes them one of the larger producers of Ethanol in the US. As of 2008, there are 139 refineries in production and another 62 on the way.

Many of these are owned by Ethanol producer POET, and others by Hawkeye Renewables and Abengoa Bioenergy. Other companies, such as Quad Counties Corn Processors entered the Ethanol field because it was a logical side step in their already profitable business. Two other giants in the Ethanol industry, VeraSun and US BioEnergy began a merger in 2008 due to market conditions. Ethanol, being tied to corn and other grown products is subject to very similar market conditions as a farmer or grain dealer.

On the smaller end, there is Wind Gap Farms using brewery waste instead of corn for production; while Range Fuels uses wood waste. Meanwhile Idaho Ethanol Processing uses potato waste as this is a common product available in Idaho. Golden Cheese Company of California is an Ethanol producer which uses cheese whey.

World’s Largest Ethanol Producer

Who would be the largest Ethanol producer? Depending on the geographic location you are in, the answers are different. Outside the US, Brazil comes in as the world’s largest Ethanol producer. Within Brazil the largest Ethanol producer is a subsidiary of Grupo Coimex known as Coimex Trading. Within the US, the largest production of Ethanol by state would be Iowa followed by Indiana and Minnisota. The Ethanol producer POET has the most production facilities, although Archer Daniels Midland provides more output of Ethanol. Australia has three Ethanol producer giants. This only accounts for biofuel Ethanol production which is the most widely used type of Ethanol, and not for cellulosic ethanol production which is big in Europe and Russia.