Marquis Energy (Marquis) is the world’s largest dry-grind ethanol facility. Located in Hennepin, Ill., Marquis produces more than 395M gal of renewable ethanol fuel per year, and also engages in carbon capture, soybean crush, and the production of other proprietary energy-based products. Marquis works with dozens of elevators and thousands of growers across the country to meet its yearly demand for renewable ethanol, many of them right here in Illinois.
The hardest part for Marquis isn’t actually producing renewable ethanol; it’s ensuring that its feedstock (corn or soybean precursors) is grown sustainably, and then tracking that sustainability across the supply chain — from grower to elevator to Marquis. Of course, confirming sustainably grown corn is one thing; enrolling enough growers to supply 395M gal of renewable ethanol per year is another. It takes approximately 20 lbs (0.35 bu) of corn to make 1 gal of ethanol. Producing 400M gal per year requires 8B lbs (140M bu) of corn across ## acres and ## growers. So how exactly does Marquis engage that many growers across so many acres? They partner with Verdova, of course!
Verdova is Marquis’ data aggregation and analysis partner. We use our proprietary platform to gather grower data from myriad sources, including farm management systems, machine files, paper records, and more. We then transform that data into auditable, field-level carbon intensity (CI) scores and tracked evidence. The Verdova × Marquis partnership demonstrates how agricultural technology innovation and ethanol production combine to deliver real economic benefits to American farmers.
Using our proven platform and state-of-the-art agentic processing capabilities, the Verdova team processed, scored, and generated final, audit-ready biofuel feedstock reports for more than 100M sustainable corn bushels in just 12 weeks. That’s a sustained throughput of 10M bushels per week!
In that three-month period, we observed an average program CI reduction of more than 25% (relative to the national baseline). More than 50% of Marquis growers use some type of farm management system, and growers provided an average of 10 evidential records each. Much of this information can be reused to generate scores and reports for 2024 and 2026 claims. All in all, our technology enables growers and partners to get more from the digital farm.
For our growers, Verdova
- Provides a 10x more efficient way to supply their stakeholders’ data
- Eliminates duplicate data reporting
- Reduces the burden of participating in potential programs
- Assures data ownership, control, and transparency
For our partners, Verdova
- Delivers data faster at lower costs
- Scales better by removing constraints on data collection
- Improves customer experience by reducing the data burden and headache for growers
- Gives partners time to focus on what they do best by eliminating their data burden
If you are interested in becoming a Verdova grower or partner, we’d love to hear from you. Our “barn door” is always open, and we can’t wait to help you harvest your data!