The company has announced the first agreement in October 2013 to purchase 167 million pounds of surplus raw beet sugar to be blended with corn at the Pacific Ethanol plants over the next year, representing feedstock for around 12 million gallons of ethanol.
Altogether, the total 270 million pounds of sugar represents feedstock to produce around 20 million gallons of ethanol.
Purchased from the Commodity Credit through its Feedstock Flexibility Program, the sugar’s purchase price represents a substantial discount to current and expected costs of delivered corn.
Pacific Ethanol president and CEO Neil Koehler said the company finalized the second agreement with the USDA to purchase sugar for biofuel production.
"This transaction is consistent with our goals of diversifying our feedstock, lowering production costs and producing low-carbon ethanol.
"This week we began blending sugar with corn at our Magic Valley facility and plan to expand this program to both our Columbia and Stockton facilities over the next two months," added Koehler.
