Ethanol industry trade show comes to Minneapolis

MINNEAPOLIS — The largest trade show for U.S. ethanol producers is running in Minneapolis this week.

The 28th International Fuel Ethanol Workshop and Expo, which began Monday and runs through Wednesday, is back in Minnesota for the first time since 2001 But the industry considers Minnesota to be its birthplace. Corn ethanol production began in the 1980s with small farm coops but now includes large multi-state producers like Sioux Falls, S.D.-based Poet. Eleven years ago, annual U.S. ethanol production was less than 2 billion gallons, but now it's roughly 14 billion.

The ethanol industry us trying to find its way now that a $6 billion-a-year federal tax credit has expired. Tim Portz, the convention's program director, tells the St. Paul Pioneer Press that while margins are lower, the industry remains profitable.