Lamberton, May 2 - Twelve students from Sleepy Eye toured Highwater Ethanol yesterday to learn more about renewable energy production.

“We were happy to welcome students from Sleepy Eye High School to our facility. While tours such as these give us a chance to showcase our production process and answer questions about career opportunities, we also think it’s important for students to learn about the role our industry plays in lowering greenhouse gas emissions, creating jobs in rural Minnesota, lowering prices at the pump and reducing our reliance on foreign oil,” said Brian Kletscher, CEO of Highwater Ethanol. 

The students, from grades nine to 12, were from Sleepy Eye High School’s Crop 101 class. 

During the tour, they learned about incoming grain grading and handling, fermentation, grain storage, ethanol storage and shipment and dried distillers grains with solubles production and storage. 

The tour was organized by the Minnesota Bio-Fuels Association (MN Bio-Fuels). Highwater Ethanol is a member of MN Bio-Fuels. 

Paul Henrickx, agriculture teacher at Sleepy Eye High School, accompanied his students during the tour. 

“I hope the students now understand that corn has more than just the use of animal feed and that there are entire industries focused on utilizing it for other needs. Although we live in an agriculturally based area, not many of the students in this class are familiar with how the industry works. Being able to take them out of the classroom to show them how this product is created and used gives them so much more knowledge that they would have been missing out on otherwise,” he said.