Innovative Legacy

What began as an experiment on a family farm has turned into the largest and most innovative ethanol producer in America. In 1983, the Broin family started with small-scale ethanol production. By 1986, they were ready to go commercial. Within a year, they began work on what would become their flagship plant in Scotland, South Dakota.

After three years of commercial production, the family established Broin & Associates to specialize in plant design, engineering, construction and research. This helped the company to increase production by 600% within its first 6 years of production.

In 1995, Broin & Associates launched Dakota Gold®, the first branded distillers grain on the market. It remains the company's primary value added ethanol co-product. Two years later, the company established Ethanol Products to market and distribute ethanol and carbon dioxide, another value added co-product.

In 2000, Broin & Associates began work on one of the most important advances in the history of biorefining -- BPX™. Short for Broin Project X, this revolutionary process converts starch into ethanol without cooking. It took four years to develop and resulted in tremendous energy savings, while doubling the industry standard ethanol concentration.

The company announced Project LIBERTY in 2006 -- a major initiative to develop the next generation of bio fuels. Cellulosic ethanol will further increase efficiencies and profitability, while reducing our dependence on foreign oil.