The 10th annual Corn Utilization Technology Conference (#CUTC16) took place in St. Louis this week and featured several corn technologies. One such advance is Enogen, developed by Syngenta. The product was designed to improve the conversion from starch to ethanol enabling facilities to produce more ethanol per bushel. Miloud Araba, head of technical services for Enogen, discussed the enzyme technology …
#Ethanol Research Director to Testify at Hearing
The Executive Director of the National Corn-to-Ethanol Research Center (NCERC) in Illinois will be at the EPA hearing on the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS) in Kansas City today to repeat the same comments he has made at the last several hearings on the subject. “Ironically, they are very similar to the comments I presented in 2015, in 2014 and in …
Corn Wet Milling Process Can Produce Bioproducts Galore
An interesting panel discussion took place this week at the 10th annual Corn Utilization Technology Conference (#CUTC16) about new and emerging technologies produced from the wet milling process of corn. For example, Kevin Coffman, part of the market development in ag environmental strategy group at Monsanto, discussed corn in the pipeline. The corn can be sold to an ethanol plant to …
Increasing Ethanol Yield
One way enzyme technology can help ethanol plants is by yielding more ethanol per bushel of corn. At the recent Corn Utilization and Technology Conference, Nathan Kreel with Novozymes talked about Olexa, a unique enzyme designed for oil recovery. “We developed it mainly to enhance corn oil extraction for the customer, but we are seeing there are a lot of …
Oxygenate from Ethanol and Corn
xF Technologies Inc. is an advanced biofuel company that has developed a chemical process to convert corn or biomass plus alcohol (especially ethanol or methanol) into an oxygenate that can be blended with gasoline and diesel. “It’s a completely chemical process – no enzymes, no bacteria, no fermentation,” said Bob Randle of xF Technologies, who spoke at the recent Corn …
Edeniq Stresses Cellulosic Ethanol is Here
At the Corn Utilization and Technology Conference last week, Steve Rust with Edeniq talked about new processing technology and products taking ethanol to the next level. “Cellulosic ethanol is for real now,” says Rust. “People need to know that because this is key right now with discussions on the Renewable Fuel Standard.” Rust says new technology like Edeniq’s PATHWAY Platform …
Gen 1.5 – Corn Fiber to Ethanol
Somewhere between corn ethanol and cellulosic ethanol is a midpoint that can be found in the corn kernel. “Generation one is starch to ethanol and generation two is corn stover and grasses but there is cellulose in the corn kernel,” explained ICM, Inc. technical director Scott Kohl during a session last week at the Corn Utilization and Technology Conference. “That’s …
Wet and Dry Milling Focus of Conference
The 2014 Corn Utilization and Technology Conference is underway in Louisville, Kentucky and this year the focus is on wet and dry milling technologies and new uses. National Corn Growers Association (NCGA) president Martin Barbre says the event brings together researchers with the common goal of facilitating the next ground-breaking technologies and corn-based products of the future. “It’s a great …
Adding Value To Ethanol Byproducts
Researchers are looking for ways to get more value out of the byproducts of ethanol production, and thus, making the production of the green fuel more efficient and cost effective. During the recent Corn Utilization Technology Conference, USDA’s Kurt Spokas presented his ideas of getting more value out of those ethanol byproducts. He’s been working with the Minnesota Corn Growers …
The Future for Corn Stover in Biofuels
The future of using corn stover for advanced biofuels was one of the discussion topics at last week’s Corn Utilization Technology Conference in Indianapolis. Nathan Mosier with the Department of Agricultural & Biological Engineering at Purdue University, told the conference that the corn refining industry has done a great job of using the corn kernel to create various value-added products. …