Summit Carbon Solutions has signed Valero, the world’s second-largest corn ethanol producer and a leader in low-carbon transportation fuels production, to be a shipper on Summit’s pipeline.
Eight of Valero’s ethanol facilities in Iowa, Nebraska, Minnesota, and South Dakota are expected to be incorporated into Summit’s project, bringing the total to 57 ethanol production facilities across the upper Midwest, from which it intends to capture and sequester over 16 million metric tons of CO2 per year.
Summit Carbon Solutions CEO Lee Blank at 2024 National Ethanol Conference
Blank was on a panel at the recent National Ethanol Conference where he had a very frank discussion with Renewable Fuels Association VP for Strategy and Innovation Tad Hepner about where the pipeline project stands right now. He said that the company has “hardened (its) attitude towards accomplishing this project” in spite of all the set backs and challenges and he admits they made some mistakes at the beginning. “To be fair, I think we deserved a little criticism early…which is the reason I think the original founders of the company decided to take a more agricultural role,” said Blank. “We have made 5800 route changes to this pipe because we do recognize now how that landowner values his acre.”
Listen to some of Blank’s comments on the panel here:
NEC24 Lee Blank, Summit Carbon Solutions, panel comments 9:50