Ethanol’s exposure was ramped up at the Iowa Speedway during the American Ethanol E15 250 presented by Enogen. One person who got media and NASCAR fans alike exited about the high-performance E15 racing fuel was Delayne Johnson with Quad County Corn Processors. His ethanol biorefinery broke some speed records of its own two years ago when they successfully launched the first cellulosic ethanol production technology of its kind that converts the corn kernel fiber into cellulosic ethanol.
Chuck Zimmerman caught up with Johnson during the race weekend to learn more about the technology. Johnson said that his plant is also using Enogen corn and when you combine that with the Cellerate technology, you get more ethanol per kernel. In addition, he said they are delivering more than $1 million back to local corn farmers in premiums for their Enogen corn.
But the money track doesn’t stop there. “We’re also pleased to allow consumers who save a dollar to a dollar fifty a gallon on the gas they are buying today because of the extra supply ethanol provides,” Johnson said. “Ethanol really is good throughout the supply chain and is good for the American people from a national defense standpoint and from a reduction of imports of crude oil, and we’re just pleased to be part of the process.”
Quad County Corn Processors is one of the most efficient ethanol plants in the country. One reason is because using their proprietary technology Cellerate, they take the fiber left over after the production of traditional corn ethanol and convert it to cellulosic ethanol enabling the plant to producing another 6 percent of ethanol out of the same kernel of corn. “When you add Enogen and Cellerate, you’re able to increase the throughput of our plant by more than 20 percent so far but we believe we can do better than that.”
To learn more about Quad County’s Cellerate + Enogen ethanol and DDGs, listen to Chuck’s interview with Delayne Johnson here: Interview with Delayne Johnson, Quad County Corn Processors
You can find lots of photos from Iowa Speedway race weekend here: Enogen Syngenta NASCAR Photo Album