Chapter 3 final.pages

Although the majority of corn co-products produced by the dry-grind ethanol industry are dried distiller’s grains with solubles, limited quantities of new corn co-products are being produced, most notably high-protein DDG. Interest by the U.S. ethanol industry in implementing front-end fractionation technologies has decreased dramatically from a few years ago, and this can be attributed to the high capital investment required and disappointing improvements in ethanol production efficiency. There are several reasons why fractionation technologies were being considered a few years ago in the U.S. ethanol industry. Some of these reasons include increased ethanol yield, less enzyme use during fermentation, lower production of co-product mass that requires drying, reduced drying costs and heat damage to proteins in co-products, less energy and water use, reduced need for frequent cleaning of the system to remove oil, ability to market or use the corn oil for other high value applications, and increased number of fractionated co-products to potentially add value and create new markets for corn co-products. Unfortunately, many of these potential advantages were never realized.