DETROIT, MI – In an interesting and unexpected use for dairy, the Michigan Milk Producers Association (MMPA) is reportedly teaming up with Canada’s Dairy Distillery in order to construct a new factory that will be giving the phrase “Got Milk?” a whole new meaning to motorists in the state.
The MMPA’s new factory, once completed, will be manufacturing a brand-new type of ethanol fuel for automobiles that is made from byproducts from milk production blended with gasoline.
To that end, the group is drawing on the expertise of Canada’s Dairy Distillery, which already has considerable experience turning milk into offbeat products. The process that the MMPA will be utilizing to manufacture the milk-based ethanol is already being used by their Canadian company to manufacture a milk-based vodka called Vodkow.
MMPA CEO Joe Diglio noted that when making dairy products such as ice cream and cheese, milk is separated into skim and butter fat; this creates a byproduct called milk permeate whey that is very high in lactose sugar. This byproduct can be filtered, concentrated, and then ultimately fermented into ethanol via Dairy Distillery’s process.
As strange as this may sound, the idea of utilizing milk byproducts as a source of motor fuel actually has its basis in the energy crisis of the 1970s; however, milk-based ethanol eventually gave way to corn-based ethanol, which was cheaper to produce.
This new return to milk-based ethanol comes as companies move to reduce their carbon footprint, as there is very little pollution associated with dairy production.
Currently, the only factories that can manufacture milk-based ethanol are located in Ireland and New Zealand; the $41 million Michigan factory – which will be located in the village of Cosntantine – will be the third once it is up and running, and is slated to produce as much as 2.2 million gallons of ethanol annually from 14,000 tons of permeate whey.
Joe Mcdermott is a journalist, reporter and writer for Auto Buyers Market as well as other independent news and media organizations in the United States. Joe works on a wide variety of topics and fields, has been featured in print and online in a variety of publications, from local to national, and helps keep a keen-eye on what’s happening in the automotive world for Auto Buyers Market.