*update Earnings Calls: Q3 '24 Highlights (part 3)
D3 Cellulosic ethanol RINS, carbon capture
Looks like Green Plains highlights were accidentally deleted in the update.
Green Plains (GRPE)
“…tOur ethanol operating rate reached nearly 97%, and we also delivered a record quarter of ultra-high protein production, as well as maintaining a strong corn oil yield in line with our record rates achieved in the second quarter…We continue to experience tailwinds for ethanol exports with totals through August of 1.2 billion gallons and on pace for a record year of 1.8 billion to 1.9 billion gallons as other countries ramp up their blend mandates and low carbon programs. We believe this will continue to grow led by Canada, where they are rapidly expanding blends and represent over one-third of where all of our exports go...Wyoming, which is one of three states with primacy for issuing Class 6 permits approved the first sequestration well for the Trailblazer project in September, and we expect additional well approvals for the project to follow in the coming months…Our carbon earning estimates remain intact with the expectation we will generate $130 million or so per year starting in the second half of 2025…We look-forward to 2025 as we know DCO becomes an advantaged feedstock and we continue to push record yields as a platform…but we know export and demand overall does not support this margin structure tone as evidenced by yesterday's EIA report showing stocks now under 20 days of production…The toxin levels at Tharaldson are the lowest in the country, which is nice because there are certainly customers that wanted North Dakota product because of the absolute zero toxin in corn that is there. And so that's getting opening us new markets as well as the West Coast where we really did not have a freight advantage out of our terminals or out of our facilities to get to the West Coast. We're seeing some new demand out of there as well….by the third quarter of next year to have those full rules outlined by the time we're sequestering carbon. So we can earn the 45Z tax credit. And then on-top of that out the voluntary credits or the LCFS credit. So it's just a step-by-step process…we think by the end of the year, early into the first-quarter, we will have nine of our 10 plants approved for D3 RIN generation at for a 1% or 2% of our capacity and that D3 RINs because we are -- you add certain things into fermentation, when you talk about 8 million or 9 million gallons and the spread between D3 and D6 RINs is $2.50 to $3 a gallon…So monetizing the 45Z and monetizing the carbon credit will be something that there are well-developed markets to do that. We've seen those trades in that 90% 95% of faced value happen and that's in our numbers as well…So it's 287 million gallons generating 800,000 tons or more of carbon credits. And we today have interest from companies and the broker markets to take our take our credits…alcohol remains strong from alcohol-to-jet players and the demand for the credit remains strong from the tax credit markets all the way up from the big tech companies that need to buy offsets and they can use our tax credits all the way down into just monetizing into the LCFS market…
-Todd Becker (CEO)