Burning Bio News

Daniel O’Brien, Kansas State Research and Robert Wisner, Iowa State University recently presented their study on Measuring Supply-Use of Distillers Grains in the United States. This report examines the projected supply and use of distillers grains in the United States during next decade and provides a preliminary examination of how expanding the proportion of ethanol allowed to be mixed in U.S. fuels from 10% (i.e., E-10), to 11% (E-11) and 15% (E-15). The authors presented extensive information including the finding that moving to E-15 will challenge the complete utilization of distillers grains locally because the local markets are already approaching saturation.

The worries about antibiotic resistance and the rise of superbugs have reached into the ethanol industry. Ethanol producers have long used antibiotics to control bacteria that can contaminate the fermentation process. But now, the Food and Drug Administration is developing a policy to regulate the use of the drugs and is conducting tests in Iowa and nationwide to determine the extent to which the antibiotics are getting into livestock feed produced by the plants.

The distiller’s grain byproduct of ethanol production accounting for up to 25 percent of a typical ethanol plant’s revenues has always been the safety valve for the volatile biofuels industry. This was never more so than in 2009 when ethanol producers spent the first half of the year bathing in red ink. China in particular was a big buyer of DDGs from the U.S., increasing their tonnage from 8,000 in 2008 to more than 400,000 tons of DDGs in 2009 to feed China’s growing cattle population.

Dried Distillers Grain (DDG) may have the potential to enter into the food-grade product market. Currently the DDG produced from ethanol production is used in animal feed as a high protein feed. It has the potential to play a similar role for food. While several companies are exploring the possibilities, no one is (publicly) actively pursuing the commercialization of a food-grade DDG product. It would take an entire new infrastructure and regulatory system, but if it added value to the ethanol plant revenue stream, the industry would rise to make it happen.

Bion Environmental Technologies has suspended its plans for a $180 million ethanol and beef cattle operation in St. Lawrence County. “The whole investment community has kind of closed down,” said Jeffrey H. Kapell, Bion vice president for project development and renewables. “It forces us to hone our focus on more short-term projects.”

A new process to pelletize distillers grains product for feed or fuel is being introduced to the market by Ag Fuel & Feed LLC, a joint venture of Ag Pellet Energy LLC of Carmel, IN, and Landers Machine Co., Ft. Worth, TX. These two partners worked together to overcome the challenge of getting distillers dried grains to pelletize without the use of additives or binders. Scott Landers designed a die that successfully extrudes a 100 percent DDG pellet. The advantages for the ethanol plant, Gary Wobler said, include being able to pelletize DDG at 15 percent moisture, which results in about a three percent reduction in drying costs.

Kansas State University E. coli O157:H7 expert T.G. Nagaraja has been awarded $939,220 by USDA to study both the connection between feeding distillers’ grains and E. coli 0157:H7 in cattle and several strategies to reduce the presence of the naturally occurring pathogen in the animals.

A University of Nebraska-Lincoln computer-based model helps cattle feeders and nutritionists better calculate feeding ethanol byproduct feeds to their herds. Cattle CODE–Coproduct Optimizer Decision Evaluator–evaluates the economic returns of feeding byproducts compared to a diet with no byproducts. Cattle CODE is available on the UNL’s Beef Cattle Production at http://beef.unl.edu/byproducts.shtml.

Primafuel, CA, is commercializing their Smarrt Oil technology to recover vegetable oil from DDGS. Using Smaart Oil, a 55-million-gallon ethanol facility could produce 2 million to 3 million gallons of fats and oils, which displaces the equivalent of 40,000 to 50,000 acres at 50 gals of biodiesel fuel per acre of soybeans.

USDA, Agricultural Research Service (ARS) researcher Kurt Rosentrater, in Brookings, SD, has found that DDGS can be blended with conventional resins to make cost-effective, durable, degradable plastics.

Omathanu Perumal and his team in SDSU’s Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences have been working with submicroscopic particles to deliver medications using the corn protein, zein, which is found in distillers grains. Zein differs from other proteins in its ability to prevent water absorption, and will likely have applications in delivering site-specific cancer treatment drugs.

USDA-ARS research indicates that distiller’s dried grains with solubles (DDGS) has a high fiber content and a molecular structure suitable for binding - two attributes that make it a candidate as a filler in plastics. Researchers compressed molded blends of DDGS and phenolic plastic resin (ranging from 0 to 90 percent DDGS) and found that DDGS concentrations between 25 and 50 percent worked best as fillers in plastics.

Mason City, Iowa-based Golden Grain Energy LLC and Madison, Wis.-based Best Energies Inc. have received $200,000 from the Iowa Department of Economic Development Board to support their intent to extract corn oil to produce biodiesel.

USDA-Agricultural Research Service scientists say ethanol distillers grains can provide protein for fish feeds at a lower cost than the soybean-corn combinations commonly used.

The use of distillers grains as a biomass power source could impact more than just the feed and energy markets. The ultimate deciding factor may be its effect on ethanol producers’ bottom lines. Edina, MN-based NewBio E Systems Inc. makes a case for ethanol plants to utilize the distillers grains as fuel in an anaerobic digester to power the ethanol process.

$1 million in Iowa economic development money was distributed to 10 Iowa State University Research Projects. Four of the projects, $443,000, focus on aspects of bioenergy research.

One hundred percent of distiller’s dried grains with solubles (DDGS) can be pelletized without adding a binding agent or anything else, according to Agricultural Research Service (ARS) scientists in SD.

Anheuser-Busch, St. Louis, MO, uses anaerobic systems to trim brewery energy costs by millions of dollars Ñ up to $5 million a year in fuel savings at the St. Louis brewery alone. Their BERS (bioenergy recovery system) gets rid of solid waste and reduces the strain on local sewage districts. It also slashes emissions of carbon dioxide by an estimated 400 million pounds a year.