Pacific Ethanol, Inc. Expands High-Quality Alcohol Production Capacity

SACRAMENTO, Calif., July 27, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Pacific Ethanol, Inc. (NASDAQ: PEIX), a leading producer and marketer of low-carbon renewable fuels and high-quality alcohol products in the United States, today announced that it is expanding its production capacity of USP grade high quality alcohol at its Pekin, Illinois facility by 30 million gallons per year. The new capacity will be online in the fourth quarter of 2020, supplying the growing demand for the company’s USP grade high quality alcohol with existing and new customers.

“Our Pekin facilities have supplied the highest quality alcohol products for over 100 years, and our experience, consistent quality and superior service positions us well to meet the surging demand for USP alcohol used in sanitizers and disinfectants,” said Mike Kandris, Pacific Ethanol’s Co-CEO. “Through debottlenecking and other process improvements, we have already added 25 million gallons of annual capacity of high quality alcohol production, and with the completion of the new project, we will increase production capacity by another 30 million gallons per year. By the end of 2020, our Pekin site will have the capability to produce 140 million gallons of high quality alcohol per year, the majority of which meets or exceeds USP specifications.

“Our diversification strategy is paying dividends as is our success expanding our presence as a leading provider of high-quality alcohols.”

About Pacific Ethanol, Inc. 
Pacific Ethanol, Inc. (PEIX) is a leading producer and marketer of low-carbon renewable fuels and high-quality alcohol products in the United States. Pacific Ethanol owns and operates seven production facilities in California, Idaho, Illinois and Oregon. The plants have a combined production capacity of 450 million gallons per year, and produce over two million tons per year of co-products – on a dry matter basis – such as wet and dry distillers grains, wet and dry corn gluten feed, condensed distillers solubles, corn gluten meal, corn germ, corn oil, distillers yeast and CO2, based on historical volumes. Pacific Ethanol markets and distributes fuel-grade ethanol, high-quality alcohol products and co-products domestically and internationally. Pacific Ethanol’s subsidiary, Kinergy Marketing LLC, markets all ethanol and high-quality alcohol products for Pacific Ethanol’s plants as well as for third parties. Pacific Ethanol’s subsidiary, Pacific Ag. Products LLC, markets wet and dry distillers grains. For more information please visit www.pacificethanol.com.

Safe Harbor Statement under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995
Statements and information contained in this communication that refer to or include Pacific Ethanol’s estimated or anticipated future results or other non-historical expressions of fact are forward-looking statements that reflect Pacific Ethanol’s current perspective of existing trends and information as of the date of the communication. Forward looking statements generally will be accompanied by words such as “anticipate,” “believe,” “plan,” “could,” “should,” “estimate,” “expect,” “forecast,” “outlook,” “guidance,” “intend,” “may,” “might,” “will,” “possible,” “potential,” “predict,” “project,” or other similar words, phrases or expressions. Such forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to, statements about Pacific Ethanol’s anticipated outcome of its strategic initiatives, including its diversification strategy into high-quality alcohol; Pacific Ethanol’s expectations about available production capacity for high quality alcohol; and Pacific Ethanol’s other plans, objectives, expectations and intentions. It is important to note that Pacific Ethanol’s plans, objectives, expectations and intentions are not predictions of actual performance. Actual results may differ materially from Pacific Ethanol’s current expectations depending upon a number of factors affecting Pacific Ethanol’s business. These factors include, among others, adverse economic and market conditions, including for ethanol and its co-products and high-quality alcohols; export conditions and international demand for ethanol and co-products; fluctuations in the price of and demand for oil and gasoline; raw material costs, including ethanol production input costs, such as corn and natural gas; and the ability of Pacific Ethanol to timely and successfully advance on its strategic initiatives. These factors also include, among others, the inherent uncertainty associated with financial and other projections; the anticipated size of the markets and continued demand for Pacific Ethanol’s products; the impact of competitive products and pricing; the risks and uncertainties normally incident to the ethanol production and marketing industries; changes in generally accepted accounting principles; successful compliance with governmental regulations applicable to Pacific Ethanol’s facilities, products and/or businesses; changes in laws, regulations and governmental policies; the loss of key senior management or staff; and other events, factors and risks previously and from time to time disclosed in Pacific Ethanol’s filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission including, specifically, those factors set forth in the “Risk Factors” section contained in Pacific Ethanol’s Form 10-Q filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission on May 14, 2020.

Released July 27, 2020