Mid American Agri Products/Wheatland (MAAPW) has gone online with Cellunator from Edeniq at its ethanol and biodiesel facility located in North Platte, Nebraska. According to Edeniq, the technology will increase the plant’s 44 million gallons per year (MGPY) of ethanol production by pretreating the corn slurry to liberate additional starch. The MAAPW facility also produces three MGPY of biodiesel. The resulting cellulosic ethanol gallons will quality for D3 RINS under the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS).

“We selected Edeniq’s Cellunator technology because of its proven track record at accessing residual starch and its ability to also pretreat corn kernel fiber to enable production of cellulosic ethanol at our plant,” said Robert Lundeen, CEO of MAAPW.

In addition to installing Cellunators, MAAPW has an option to license the Pathway Technology. Edeniq’s Pathway Technology integrates Edeniq’s Cellunator equipment with cellulase enzymes to convert corn kernel fiber to cellulosic ethanol. The company says its Pathway Technology utilizes existing fermentation and distillation equipment to produce up to 2.5 percent cellulosic ethanol and a 7 percent increase in overall ethanol yield.

“We are excited that Mid American Agri Products/Wheatland has partnered with us to increase their ethanol yield,” said Brian Thome, President and CEO of Edeniq. “We look forward to continuing to work hand in hand with their team to maximize their return on investment with our technology.”