Web exclusive posted March 24, 2009, at 4:52 p.m. CST

Dry fractionation specialist Cereal Process Technologies Inc. has added a new application to its dry milling technology, which allows ethanol managers to alter the corn kernel's fractions according to market demand.

The company's fractionation system was detailed in the January 2009 issue of Ethanol Producer Magazine. (Read "A Renewed Future.")

"We've been able to really fine-tune our system," said Reg Ankrom, director of market development for CPT. "Right now, with the price of corn oil as low as it is, producers really want more starch to be able to produce more ethanol, and we've perfected our (system) ability to do that."

Ankrom explained that instead of dialing into what the company has coined "the sweet spot"—or fractionating at about 91 percent starch—a producer will now be able to use the MarketFlex to ramp up starch capture to more than 96 percent. "Just about everything not bound in the germ and brand," he said. "What that means is that the ethanol plant manager can dial in exactly what they want, so that when corn oil prices are low, they can dial up more starch to produce more ethanol to help meet margins."

When corn oil prices rise, a producer can dial back down to take a little less starch, which improves the ethanol process and captures more oil. "Last year, oil prices were about $2,000 a ton," Ankrom said. "This year, they've slipped back to around $400 per ton. When oil is that low, why focus on that instead of starch? We've perfected the CPT system's ability by running performance tests on a sustained basis. We can get as much starch as possible out of the corn dry milling operation, and when doing this, we still capture oil yields of about 53 percent."

The change of streams, according to Ankrom, can be done in minutes with no shutdown or slowdown.

CPT's system is currently installed at Renew Energy's 130 MMgy ethanol plant near Jefferson, Wis.