Platte Valley Distillers produces distillers grains pellets

Furst McNess

October 11, 2016

BY Ann Bailey

Platte Valley Distillers in Nebraska has developed a patented process that produces distillers grain cubes and pellets without the use of binders or additives.

The PVD process makes cubes and pellets, which will be produced in Lexington, Nebraska, easier to transport domestically and overseas, than bulk distillers grains, said Tom Kruml, one of Platte Valley Distiller’ owners. Platte Valley Distillers’ process increases the density by 2.3 to 2.5 times, he said. There are no additives in the cubes and pellets. The corn oil in the distillers grain helps to seal the products.

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Platte Valley Distillers buys most of its feedstock from ethanol plants across Nebraska. Platte Valley Distillers has the capacity to produce 30,000 to 35,000 tons of the distillers grain products annually, Kruml said. His company markets the cubes and pellets through Furst McNess. The cubes and pellets are sold to cow-calf producers and ranchers who background and creep-feed calves, and the products have a shelf life of up to three years. The products are exported to China, Canada, Mexico and Korea, Kruml said.

PVD process increases the density of the distillers grains, Kruml said. The cubes are 7/8 of an inch in diameter and about 2.5 to 3 inches long, and the pellets are 7/16 of an inch in dimeter and about an inch long.

Most cubes and pellets need some kind of binder or agent added to the distillers, Kruml said. “We don’t have that. The technology is, itself, what allows that to happen,” Kruml said.  “It’s the patented pat of the process.” “It literally is the pure distillers grains, and that’s what separates these cubes and pellets apart from anything else that is out there,” he said.

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