As Ethanol Production continues to increase around the nation, New York is surprisingly one of fastest growing producers of the bio energy. Western New York Energy opened a plant outside Medina in 2007 and is producing 57 million gallons of ethanol in it annually.
Ethanol plants produce other byproducts that are worthwhile to keep besides ethanol. The Western New York Energy plant generates about 160,000 tons of a low-fat distillers grain each year. The grain is marketed to dairy farms. Another byproduct of Ethanol production is 1.5 million gallons of crude corn oil that is processed into biodiesel. This, as well as 100,000 tons of carbon dioxide used by food companies for beverage carbonation reveal Ethanol production’s multi-dimensional uses.