Green Plains Announces Additional Locations for World’s Largest Carbon Capture and Sequestration Project

• Midwest pipeline expanding into Nebraska and Southwest Iowa, facilitating the addition of five Green Plains biorefineries
  
• Green Plains committed an additional 424 million gallons of annual capacity from its Shenandoah, Iowa and four Nebraska locations to the carbon pipeline network
• Total pledged commitment of 658 million gallons of annual capacity translates to approximately 1.9 million metric tons of carbon captured and sequestered annually
  

OMAHA, Neb., April 29, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Green Plains Inc. (NASDAQ:GPRE), today announced that all four of its Nebraska biorefineries and its Shenandoah, Iowa biorefinery have entered into a long term carbon offtake agreement with Summit Carbon Solutions, a subsidiary of Summit Agricultural Group (SCS). The agreement is part of an announced pipeline expansion into Nebraska of the SCS carbon capture and sequestration project that will develop the infrastructure to capture and transport CO2 for long-term deposit into geologic storage.

“Expanding our partnership with Summit Carbon Solutions is critical to the ongoing transformation of our biorefinery platform,” said Todd Becker, president and chief executive officer. “Dramatically lowering the carbon intensity of our plants is important to our Ultra-High Protein ingredients and renewable corn oil as customers are increasingly looking to improve the carbon footprint of their own products. The pure CO2 coming from our fermentation process is ideally suited for capture and long term sequestration and we believe this carbon reduction could earn additional income from low carbon fuel standard credits, 45Q tax credits and voluntary carbon credit markets as they develop in the future.”

Green Plains will connect its biorefineries in Shenandoah, Iowa, Atkinson, Neb., Central City, Neb., Wood River, Neb., and York, Neb. bringing its total commitment to 658 million gallons of annual capacity, or nearly 70% of its platform. Green Plains’ biorefineries in Obion, Tenn., Mount Vernon, Ind. and Madison, Ill. are all candidates for direct carbon dioxide injection into geologic storage and are being considered for future non-pipeline projects. Green Plains’ expanded annual commitment is approximately 1.9 million metric tons of carbon dioxide, the same amount of carbon sequestered by 2.3 million acres of U.S. forests in a year, according to the EPA. The expanded project is anticipated to begin operation in 2024.

“Participating as an investor in the development company of the pipeline project expands Green Plains’ optionality to capture additional value from this growing industry for our shareholders. In addition to lowering the carbon of our biorefinery products, participating in the pipeline economics for an increasingly low carbon focused world is important to our transformation plans,” added Becker. “As one of the largest producers in Nebraska, our decision to expand this project into our home state adds significant opportunity to reduce the carbon impact across a greater number of biorefineries across the Midwest.”

“We’re excited to see Green Plains, the largest producer of biofuels in Nebraska, anchor this project expansion into the state by committing all of their biorefinery carbon offtake to this project. This will help drive significant investment to the state in carbon capture and sequestration,” said Nebraska Governor Pete Ricketts. “The biofuels industry is a major driver of our state’s economy, and we are encouraged by the opportunities presented by large scale carbon capture investments to further enhance the sustainability of Nebraska agriculture, the backbone for our state’s economic success over the last 20 years.”

About Green Plains Inc.
Green Plains Inc. (NASDAQ:GPRE) is a leading biorefining company focused on the development and utilization of fermentation, agricultural and biological technologies in the processing of annually renewable crops into sustainable value-added ingredients. This includes the production of cleaner low carbon biofuels, renewable feedstocks for advanced biofuels and high purity alcohols for use in cleaners and disinfectants. Green Plains is an innovative producer of Ultra-High Protein and novel ingredients for animal and aquaculture diets to help satisfy a growing global appetite for sustainable protein. The Company also owns a 48.9% limited partner interest and a 2.0% general partner interest in Green Plains Partners LP. For more information, visit www.gpreinc.com.

About Summit Agricultural Group
Summit Agricultural Group is a diversified agribusiness operator and investment manager with operations in the United States and Brazil. Summit deploys capital across the agricultural supply chain with a particular focus at the intersection of agriculture and renewable energy. For more information, visit: www.summitag.com

Green Plains Inc. Contacts
Investors: Phil Boggs | Senior Vice President, Investor Relations | 402.884.8700 | phil.boggs@gpreinc.com
Media: Leighton Eusebio | Manager, Public Relations | 402.952.4971 | leighton.eusebio@gpreinc.com