CPT Announces Flexible Milling System to Enable Ethanol to Sustain Profit Margins
Submitted by: Cereal Process Technologies
2009-03-29 00:00:46
Cereal Process Technologies has achieved a breakthrough in its corn dry fractionation technology that now allows ethanol producers to take advantage of the most profitable markets available at any given time for ethanol product and co-product streams.
Overland Park, KS (OPENPRESS) March 29, 2009 -- Calling its new flexible milling system "MarketFlex™," CPT says its innovation gives ethanol management more control over its products and profits. MarketFlex™ uses the company's unique corn dry milling technology to permit ethanol managers to precisely "dial in" the corn kernel's fractions that the market is valuing most at any given time. The change in fractioned streams can be made within minutes and without a shutdown or slowdown of either the ethanol or fractionation plant.
CPT's patented process for separating the corn kernel's starch-laden endosperm from the kernel's non-fermentable corn germ and bran has been proven to boost ethanol production by 17 percent in more than a year of continuous operation at a 130-million gallon ethanol plant.
The ability to significantly reduce the non-fermentables introduced with the starch stream into the ethanol plant means a higher quality byproduct from ethanol's production, which CPT calls high protein meal. Those higher levels of protein open the door to new markets in swine, poultry, pet and aquaculture feeds. Conventional ethanol plants typically produce a byproduct called Distillers Dry Grains and Solubles, or DDGS, containing more fat and fiber, resulting in lower protein content. The market for DDGS generally has been limited as a feed for cattle.
"MarketFlex™ gives the ethanol plant's management an important new tool to assure sustained profits by producing what the market values most," said Bob Giguere, CPT's president. "If the market is valuing corn oil, we'll guarantee the highest level of corn oil corn dry milling can produce. At the same time, we also will guarantee the highest related amount of starch to make ethanol.
"Fractionation has proven its ability to get more value out of the corn you've paid for, and CPT has proven its ability to mill the highest quality fractions. What we've done with MarketFlex™ is to give the ethanol producer additional ability to adjust the composition of those fractions. It means he has a new option to be able to respond when he sees changes in how the market his valuing his products and co-products."
Giguere said his company over the last year saw the importance of giving ethanol producers the ability to tailor their product and co-product streams to help assure they could stay profitable - even with price swings in ethanol and co-product markets.
"While corn prices reached nearly $2,000 a ton last year - which made it profitable to mill for more oil, they have fallen to as little as $400 a ton more recently," he said. "At those recent oil prices, it makes more sense for ethanol to be able to dial back on the oil-bearing corn germ and mill for more starch to produce more volumes of ethanol."
Commercial performance of MarketFlex™ and CPT technology, Giguere said, had proven sustained starch yields of more than 96 percent of the total starch in the corn kernel. With approximately 3 percent of the starch molecularly bound in the corn kernel's germ and bran, the company's technology had achieved the capture of nearly all the starch available to dry milling. Giguere said that production had been achieved with the corn dry fractionation industry's lowest capital and operating costs.
"MarketFlex™ puts ethanol plant operators in the driver's seat," Giguere said. "It gives them full control to mill the fractions that will yield the highest profitability. And it opens the door to new ways to serve additional markets. The use of MarketFlex™, even under current conditions, will allow marginal ethanol plants to achieve more profitability."
The corn kernel is made up of approximately 82 percent starch-bearing endosperm, 12 percent germ and 6 percent bran. Only the starch is fermentable, or capable of making ethanol. By separating the non-fermentables so that only the starch stream is delivered to the ethanol process, fractionation means significantly improved ethanol production at lower cost. Because non-fermentable materials no longer take up plant capacity, more space is available to make additional volumes of ethanol.
So when the market for corn oil, which can be expelled or extracted from fractionation's corn germ stream, is "paying less than the the ethanol plant can get for making more ethanol, the ethanol plant's managers can dial back on oil and dial in more starch so that they can produce more ethanol," Giguere noted. The ability to take advantage of the highest values markets are offering at any given time for ethanol's products and co-products is what helps assure sustained profits and margins, he said.
Contact Info
Cereal Process Technologies
Phone: 217-779-2595
Website: http://www.cerealprocess.com
Reg Ankrom, Director Sales and Market Development
Cereal Process Technologies
510 Maine Street, Suite 502
Quincy, IL 62301
