How the CPT process works

Can you provide a brief description of the CPT process?

Sure. Let’s remember our goals: precision milling to send an optimal starch stream to the ethanol plant and capture the value of the other main parts of the corn kernel, the bran and germ.

The first step is to clean the incoming whole corn of materials like stones, cobs and stalks and any other extraneous matter. Corn is then tempered and held in tanks for approximately 24 hours to assure even moisture to prepare for fractionation.

The next step is to separate the germ from its bed of floury endosperm. The size of the resulting corn pieces is reduced in passing through roller mills. Sifters then collect remaining large pieces, which are returned to mills for one more size-reducing pass.

Aspirators then separate the lighter bran from the germ and endosperm streams. A bran finisher is used to remove the approximately one percentage point of endosperm clinging to the bran.

The optimal starch steam now can be sent directly to the ethanol plant or temporary storage.

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Corn Variety

Does fractionation require any special variety of corn?

No. Good old #2 yellow dent corn works fine.

How does it differ from other fractionation systems?

The key differences are in CPT technology’s elegant simplicity. It adds up to sizable savings in capital and operating costs.

Strong engineering and elegant design have enabled us to claim by commercialization the best dry-mill fractionation and at lowest cost on the market. A CPT plant can be built for as little as half the cost of competing fractionation systems. And CPT’s modular design enables our client to buy only the size plant needed. No overbuilding is required here.

Operating and maintenance costs are significantly lower, too. CPT technology does not require heat or thermal energy, meaning it does not require another hefty line on the income statement. With very little feedstock preconditioning needed, there’s no drying. This adds up to savings of as much as 35 percent for the ethanol plant.

CPT’s modular design permits targeted maintenance. That means the producer does not have to take the entire fractioning plant down to fix a single component.

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How do others prepare feedstock for ethanol?

Conventional ethanol plants, which hammer mill whole corn, do not separate the endosperm, or starch component of the kernel, from the nonfermenting germ and bran. There are several downsides, including a bunch of nonfermentable stuff clogging up the producer’s fermenters and causing a lot of expense with no return. That may have been okay when corn prices were under $2 a bushel and ethanol markets were more certain. Today’s ethanol market – and tomorrow’s – demands efficiencies and predictability that only fractionation can do and that only CPT fractionation can do best.

A few ethanol plants use a wet milling process, which requires steeping the corn feedstock, usually in a heated solution, to achieve separation of the corn’s components. Clearly, that’s more cost. Temperature and moisture also have an effect on the valuable corn germ that reduces its shelf life considerably. With CPT’s process, the producer gets the best endosperm stream – as much as 95 percent of the available starch in each corn kernel – and clean and dry separation, meaning longer shelf life, of the corn germ.

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Can you provide a little more detail of the downsides of that?

The corn germ is the “living part” of the kernel. Temperature and moisture activate its growth. Wet milling can do that. And once the germ begins growing, the germ must be put to use quickly or its value is lost. CPT’s dry milling system does not activate the enzymes that start the germ’s growth.

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Co-Products

How much bran and germ will fractionating in a 100 million gallon plant produce each year?

Fractionation will yield approximately 155,000 tons of germ per year and about 92,000 tons of bran.

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