Reeve Agri-Energy

Located in Garden City, Kansas, Reeve Agri-Energy began start-up and production as an integrated ethanol plant and cattle feedlot in 1982. From the earliest days of production, the Reeve vision put the small ethanol plant at the forefront of integrated systems technology. In addition to providing a valuable animal feed directly to the 6,000 head cattle feedlot, the innovative design incorporated features for utilizing waste heat from the ethanol plant in a fish farming operation for local markets. Initially, KATZEN designed the distillation system for the 1.5 MM GPY Motor Fuel Ethanol facility. However, in 1985 KATZEN helped Reeve install new fermentation systems to increase the capacity of the facility to around 3.0 MM GPY.

It was on the backbone of the strong relationship that grew between our two companies that Reeve again expanded its capacity in 1993 to 8 MM GPY utilizing an owner managed project strategy and the full KATZEN ethanol plant technology. This new capacity was synergistic with the steady expansion of the cattle feedlot, which had by then reached approximately 30,000 head of cattle.

Throughout and since the 1990’s, Reeve and KATZEN have worked together to improve the plant efficiencies, expand the production and explore new synergies with the cattle feedlot. Today, the plant shines as one of the lowest cost producers, providing more than 12 MM GPY of ethanol to the industry and feed to more than 40,000 head of cattle.

KATZEN provided to Reeve the process design package, detail engineering and construction liaison, operator training and start-up service.