A new owner has taken over an ethanol plant near the Quad Cities. Patriot Renewable Fuels in Annawan, Illinois has been sold to CHS, a farmer-owned co-op, based in Inver Grove Heights, Minnesota, a suburb of St. Paul.
Senior vice president, Gary Anderson, says CHS invests in energy, grain, fertilizer, and processing, and Patriot was a long-term customer.
Anderson says CHS will eventually change the name of the plant, but continue to run it as it has been, with nearly 70 employees, and an emphasis on buying grain from local farmers.
Credit Patriot Renewable Fuels
Patriot opened in 2008, and now buys about 40 million bushels of corn each year.
Just last year, CHS bought its very first ethanol plant - in Rochelle, Illinois.