Dairy byproduct-based ethanol plant announced by MMPA, Dairy Distillery

Dairy byproduct-based ethanol plant announced by MMPA, Dairy Distillery

The first dairy-based ethanol plant in the U.S. will break ground later this year. 

The Michigan Milk Producers Association and Canadian Dairy Distillery are partnering to turn a dairy byproduct, milk permeate, into ethanol for the biofuels sector.

Dairy Distillery CEO Omid McDonald tells Brownfield he helped create a method to process the milk sugar into a carbon-neutral vodka that’s marketed as VodKow.

“Very early on in the project, I got to learn how there’s an imbalance in dairy where people are drinking less fluid milk and eating more cheese and yogurt, there’s a lot of lactose leftover and different byproducts,” he says.