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Ethanol Producers –
Get More from Your Feedstock!
Ethanol producers, you know your largest expense is corn. You know you can get more out of that big buy with fractionation. But can fractionation help you stay profitable with corn prices going up and ethanol prices going down?
CPT says yes with MarketFlex™
. . .a new way of fractioning that allows you to “dial in” the fractionated stream the market values most at any given time.
CPT’s patented technology does the best job of capturing the oil-rich corn germ when the market values it most. Or the starch-laden endosperm, when ethanol volumes are more lucrative. Or a combination of the two. So when you next wonder about how to capture the most value from your biggest expense, call us about MarketFlex™
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Cereal Process Technologies has achieved a breakthrough in its corn dry fractionation technology that now allows ethanol plant managers to use the company's technology to take advantage of the most profitable markets available at any time for ethanol product and co-product streams.
Calling its new flexible milling system "MarketFlex™," the higher production control over fractionation streams is now available with CPT's patented process. It uses the company's unique corn dry milling system 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 in more than a year of continuous operation at a 130-million gallon ethanol plant to boost ethanol production by 17 percent.
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 productions, which CPT calls high protein meal. Those higher levels of protein open the door to new markets in swine,
poultry, pet and aquaculture. Conventional ethanol plants typically produce Distillers Dry Grains with Solubles (DDGS) which contains more fat and fiber, resulting in lower protein content. Its use generally is limited to cattle.
"MarketFlex™ gives an ethanol plant's management important new flexibility 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."
 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 oil prices reached nearly $2,000 a ton last year, they have fallen to as little as $400 a ton more recently," Giguere 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 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 – meaning better capital utilization, Giguere noted.
So when the market for corn oil, which can be expelled or extracted from fractionation's corn germ stream, is "paying less than 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 said. 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.
More information is available by calling Pete Moss, CPT Director of Market Development, at (913) 851-4600.
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