Advanced natural resource students arrive at Heartland Corn Products ethanol plant for a field trip.
Students take a quick trip to Heartland Corn Products
Ethanol plants are not what most students expect
When filling your car, truck, SUV, or whatever vehicle you have with gas you know that there is ethanol within the gas. But do you know how ethanol is made? Where ethanol is made? Well, an advanced natural resources class from New Ulm High School went and found out. They visited Heartland Corn Products in Winthrop to find the answers to those questions.
The students arrived around 8:30 a.m. where they rounded up in the conference room and met two of the main heads of the company. The bosses of the plant explained the science and technological process of turning corn into ethanol. Both also explained serious safety protocols that the students must follow well in the ethanol plant. Then off they went to get a tour of the plant.
The students got to see first-hand what it is like to work on an ethanol plant. They got to see all of the technology used to process and turn corn into ethanol. The students learned that the plant does not actually need a lot of workers for the plant to function, because the plant is run on almost 100% technology and is all controlled from the control room. This surprised most of the students and Kellen Bode even said, “I thought plants had like 100 people working on it at once like most factories.”