Miller Magazine Issue: 131 November 2020

63 INTERVIEW MILLER / November 2020 Golden Grain Energy (GGE) is a fully operational etha- nol production facility. Owned by more than 900 mem- bers, GGE produces approximately 130 million gallons of ethanol and co-products a year. GGE draws attention as a company that has contin- uously expanded since the day it started production in 2004. Based in Mason City, Iowa, the facility continues to optimize production and a world record will be broken in the company's latest expansion. In September 2020, Golden Grain started construc- tion on a new grain storage and receiving system. Sukup Manufacturing, the world’s largest family-owned and operated manufacturer of grain storage, grain drying and handling equipment, and steel buildings, has designed and manufactured the world’s largest free span grain bin, with a diameter of 165 feet for GGE. Ground was broken for the new bin on September 14, 2020, at the plant. Chad Kuhlers, Golden Grain CEO, told us the details of this new system and shared his view on the future of the ethanol industry. First of all, could you please provide us with some brief background information on your company and its activities? What kind of role and place does Gold- en Grain Energy has in the US in its operating indus- try? Could you tell us how your company has come to its current position? The Company began in December 2001 when the Chickasaw County Board of Supervisors appropriated money for an ethanol plant feasibility study. In March 2002, Golden Grain Energy, LLC was formed and the company charter was signed. Forty farmers and busi- nessmen from nine counties in Northeast Iowa raised $460,000 of seed money needed to fund the proposal and front-end engineering for the plant. In June 2002, the company signed a letter of intent with ICM/Fagen for the plant design and construction. After a rigorous selection process, in September 2002, Mason City, Iowa was chosen as the preferred location for the plant. In May of 2003, the sale of company shares commenced and ended in January 2004 after approxi- mately 60 membership meetings. During the member- ship drive, 735 investors contributed approximately $27 million in equity. Construction for the plant in Mason City began on October 10, 2003, and the facility be- gan production on December 13, 2004. We began as a 40-million-gallon-per-year facility, and by 2005, we were producing approximately 60 million gallons/year of etha- nol from approximately 18 million bushels of corn. On November 15, 2005 Golden Grain members rati- fied to expand the facility adding another 40 million gal- lons/year nameplate capacity for a total nameplate of 80 million gallons/year. Construction began in April 2006 with production online in June 2007. In February 2009, we installed a corn oil extraction system to allow us to extract corn oil from the process. Over the years we added additional equipment includ- ing additional fermentation tanks, grain storage, and cooling towers to allow the plant to optimize our pro- duction prospects. The facility continues to optimize production and strives to produce high quality products each and every day. In February 2015, we celebrated production of our