Start-up company Corn Oil One announced it has broken ground on its new distillers corn oil (DCO) frac facility that will use a patent-pending process to purify components out of DCO, such as waxes and free fatty acids, which require pretreatment before conversion to biodiesel.

The new frac plant, co-located with the 110 MMgy Southwest Iowa Renewable Energy ethanol plant in Council Bluffs, Iowa, is expected to be completed early next year. It will be scaled to process up to 15 MMgy of DCO.

“This purified product improves the efficiency, efficacy and economics of biodiesel and oleochemical production by eliminating the need for capital intensive pretreatment steps,” said Joe Riley, general manager of Corn Oil One. “SIRE has been a great partner for us. Their forward-thinking approach on the future of distillers corn oil is what has made this ground breaking a reality.”

According to Riley, the Corn Oil One product is also drawing interest from animal feed manufacturers and biobased industrial manufacturers.

ICM Inc. of Colwich, Kan., is the engineering, procurement and construction contractor for the project.

“ICM is very excited about this project and its ability to transform distillers corn oil,” said Chris Mitchell, president of ICM. “We look forward to being involved as this technology expands.”

“SIRE is very pleased to be a part of this project with Corn Oil One and ICM,” said Brian Cahill, president and CEO of SIRE. “We see this as an opportunity to add value to our corn oil operation and expand our customer base."

Once operational, FEC Solutions, the exclusive purchasing agent for Corn Oil One, will source millions of gallons of distillers corn oil annually for the new facility. U.S. ethanol producers supply about 200 million gallons of distiller's corn oil annually as a byproduct of ethanol production.

The company says its new product will increase the use of DCO in biodiesel production by eliminating the need for pretreatment systems. Roughly 142 million gallons of DCO is used to produce biodiesel.

The new plant will also be isolating and removing high-value constituents for use in biochemicals, oleochemicals, feed, life sciences and fuel.

Expected plans call for additional oil frac facilities co-located with large ethanol producers across the country.

FEC Solutions originally unveiled the Corn Oil One system two years ago at the 2012 Fuel Ethanol Workshop & Expo.