Green Plains Inc. announced April 14 the startup of its high-protein ingredient production facility and the first shipment of the product from its biorefinery in Shenandoah, Iowa.

The shipment is destined for a premier ingredient processor and supplier in the pet food industry, Green Plains said, noting that it has already sold a majority of its planned high-protein production for 2020.

“The completion of our first high-protein ingredient production project represents a major milestone in our strategy to diversify our earnings and transition towards the creation of more sustainable high-value products,” Green Plains president and chief executive officer Todd Becker said. “We can now provide a high-quality protein feed product to the pet and aquaculture markets, extracting additional value from each kernel of corn we process in order to meet the growing worldwide demand for protein and novel feed ingredients. Our initial shipments averaged 51% protein, compared to traditional distillers grains, which average 30%.”

The high-protein feed ingredient is produced using Fluid Quip Technologies’ patented Maximized Stillage Co-products (MSC) system, which adds a high-value product to the company’s portfolio.

Green Plains said the newly constructed MSC system at Shenandoah represents a $38 million investment. Shenandoah now has the capacity to produce up to 50,000 tons of high-protein feed ingredients annually and has increased the annual corn oil production capacity at Shenandoah by 20%.

“The successful startup at Shenandoah demonstrates our continued commitment to our 'Total Transformation Plan' to become a world-class provider of sustainable, high-protein and novel feed ingredients while continuing to produce low-carbon, closed-loop and sustainable biofuels,” Becker added. “We are excited to implement this technology across our platform and collaborate with our biotechnology partners to further increase margins and add value to the products we produce. We will continue to refine formulations for our aquaculture feed customers using Optimal Aquafeed’s world class aqua lab located next to our high-protein production facility in order to provide our customers with innovative solutions to increase feed conversions and help them transition to products that do not increase acreage expansion globally.”

Green Plains said its Shenandoah location is now a complete end-to-end biorefining campus with the capacity to process approximately 28 million bu. of corn annually and produce 82 million gal. of biofuels, 50,000 tons of high-protein pet and aquaculture feed ingredients, 160,000 tons of post-MSC dried distillers grains and 31 million lb. of corn oil. It also has an on-site aquaculture laboratory and testing facility.