This is an update to the blog I posted last week about "frac tech" being the buzz at last week's International Fuel Ethanol Workshop & Expo in Nashville. As a follow-up, I have a few interesting things to report from the conference. I attended the June 17 technical workshop on fractionation. The panel included representatives of companies offering frac applications for new and existing facilities (i.e., snap-on technologies).

It might seem like the firms pushing fractionation are offering similar technologies with different packaging. However, considering that most dry mills are unique — by location if not design — the slightest difference between one frac package and another can be dramatic to a facility's bottom line. What most are offering is frac processes that separate the germ (oil) and the pericarp (fiber or bran) from the fermentable portion of the corn kernel, the endosperm. As a speaker from Mercer Energy explained, "Traditionally ethanol is produced by fermenting whole ground corn. The resulting products of the process are ethanol, carbon dioxide and distillers grains with solubles. The non-fermentable components of this traditional process go through the entire fermentation process. Because the whole kernel is ground, the resulting coproduct is ultimately high in fat, fiber, potassium and phosphorus. Fractionation — in Mercer's case, a trademarked modified wet frac process called "HydroMilling" — separates the germ and bran from the corn kernel prior to ethanol fermentation. Following this separation, the primary remaining fraction, starch, is used in making ethanol.

Like other companies offering frac, Mercer is touting the fact that products resulting from corn fractionation may ultimately save the image of the corn ethanol industry by increasing the number of valuable human food products extracted from each bushel of corn. The HydroMilling process, for example, can (depending on the package) yield both edible oil and whole bran (i.e., human fiber).

Likewise, Glen Foster of Canada-based FWS Technologies talked about the frac tech his company has been developing since 2002. Through fractionation, Foster says, producers are able to process less non-fermentable material; reduce viscosity (less fiber and gluten to deal with); reduce the amount of enzymes needed; achieve better, bigger fermentations; decrease fouling, increase efficiency and reduce maintenance cycles.

So is this about increasing plant efficiency or beating the food vs. fuel debate?

Well both, really. Beating the food vs. fuel debate may be a sexy proposition, but increasing plant efficiencies is still the top priority for most producers evaluating frac applications. Steve Rosen of Cereal Process Technologies said his company has just installed its frac process at Renew Energy LLC, a 130 MMgy ethanol plant in Jefferson, Wisc. By utilizing CPT's proprietary frac technology, the facility is making better use of its energy and diversifying its product stream, making it a lower-cost producer. Ultimately, facility managers feel the frac plant gives them a vitally important improved crush spread. The plant — a modular facility that can be expanded — is currently designed to fractionate 49 million bushels of corn per year. The result is a product called "DDC:" degermed, debraned corn that's truly tailored for fermentation. The resultant feed product, which CPT does not refer to as distillers grains, is a high protein trademarked feed called Renew Meal. High value corn oil is also an option.

Finally, Jeff Scharping of ICM talked about his company's own frac offering, telling the audience that fractionation is the key to eliminating the food vs. fuel and energy balance debates for good, and insulating plant from high energy costs. In fact, Scharping's boss, ICM CEO Dave Vander Griend, gave a special presentation on that very topic (beating the food vs. fuel issue with frac tech) later that day. Unfortunately, I was not able to attend. If you attended, post a response and let us know what Vander Griend said.

Scharping highlighted how ICM is able to direct the corn's endosperm to food, fuel and/or feed, making various grades of distillers grains. He explained how the germ can be directed into food, steam and ultimately cellulosic ethanol production. And he said the bran can also be used to produce steam or food. "Burning or gasifying the bran for process heat and steam is an option," he said. Ultimately, it's all about higher plant capacity (greater throughput) and value-added products. ICM says it can make a 55 MMgy plant produce 70 MMgy and a 115 MMgy plant produce 130 MMgy.

When asked about the up front investment and payback (ROI) on these various frac technologies, the panelists gave varying answers. Up front costs of construction and technology licensing ranged from $10 million to $40 million. And the general consensus was that ROI would yield a payback within two years.


ORIGINAL POSTING ON FRAC TECH: June 16

Frac tech is the buzz at this year's FEW

As the Grocery Manufacturers Association's anti-ethanol campaign swings into full gear with the launch of the Web site www.foodbeforefuel.org, the ethanol industry is not just fighting back with words, but action.

At the 2008 International Fuel Ethanol Workshop & Expo, which kicks off today in Nashville, corn fractionation is the buzz. "Frac" technologies, in a nutshell, are all about diversifying the corn processing product stream … getting more valuable coproducts (some of them human food ingredients) out of each bushel of corn that goes into the production of biofuels. Several companies here in Nashville are showcasing frac technologies, both front-end and back-end versions, and it will be exciting to see which ones, if any, ultimately win out. Personally, I think corn frac is one of the best long-term hopes corn ethanol production has. Remember the "biorefining" revolution everyone in the industry was talking about a few years ago? This is it. The ethanol industry needs to make this happen now. Forget the costs of transition. It needs to be done.

Tomorrow afternoon, ICM Inc. CEO Dave Vander Griend will discus his company's new "Food and Fuel" technology. "Our plant of the future will use less than 10,000 Btu's to produce ethanol, feed and food," he says. Vander Griend's engineers and scientists are confident that ICM can put an end to the food vs. fuel debate for good, within two years. And with such drastic energy reductions being promised, there will be plenty of interested people listening to him this week in Nashville.

While Vander Griend takes to the microphone at the FEW, other industry players are rolling out their own fractionation offerings. Delta-T is pushing its Dry Separation Technology (DST). Likewise, FCStone Carbon LLC announced this morning that Quad County Corn Processors, a 30 MMgy ethanol plant in Galva, Iowa, has engaged with FCO2's engineering and construction partner Agri Process Innovations of Stuttgart, Ark., to design and build the "Quick Germ Quick Fiber Modified Wet Milling" corn fractionation process at QCCP. Other companies are rolling out other exciting frac tech as well.

Ethanol margins are tighter than ever (i.e., $7 corn, $12 natural gas) and this might just be the type of economic advantage producers will need in the years ahead. The cost of adding fractionation, however, just might be too great a hurdle for some to climb right now. ICM's advanced food and fuel technology, a dry corn fractionation process that allows the use of the entire corn kernel, would require the construction of separate facilities at ethanol plants where the kernel can be separated into its components: endosperm, germ and bran. The process would separate out the germ for human food uses.

Researchers at ICM have learned how to extract a protein from the germ that can be sold as a valuable food ingredient. Other human food products from the corn germ are being developed. The corn bran could be used as a feedstock for biomass power, too.

Most of the nation's ethanol plants are dry mills, of course, and that means the primary coproduct of U.S. ethanol production is distillers grains. Yes, DDGS production puts huge quantities of protein back into the food chain (via livestock production), but adding additional streams for human food ingredients would be a feather in the ethanol industry's cap. Its ICM's goal to get at least five plants to sign up this year to start implementing their new frac process.

I'll provide more details on this as the expo hall opens tonight and conference sessions get underway Tuesday and Wednesday.