A North Dakota ethanol plant is truly exploring the concept of value-added products. The Blue Flint Ethanol refinery in Underwood, ND, will extract oil from the corn it turns into ethanol to turn that oil into biodiesel.

KXMB-TV is Bismarck reports the oil extracting equipment will be right there at the refinery and is the first of its kind in the state:

General Manager Jeff Zueger says there is about half-pound of oil in a bushel of corn.

“We see it as a postive we are able to move oil into a higher value markets, produce another renewable fuel. When you remove corn oil from the process a gallon of corn oil estentially converts to a gallon of biodiesel. So we are able to get about another 5 percent out of this plant as opposed to just producing ethanol and distillers grain. Now we are producing a product that ultimately ends up as biodiesel.”

The plant is expected to produce 1.5 million gallons of biodiesel annually … enough to pay for the $2 million project within a year.