Flint Hills Resources invests in ethanol co-product processing at Fairmont plant

Flint Hills Resources (FHR) is making a multimillion dollar investment into its Nebraska ethanol plant to upgrade its co-product processing technology.

FHR will invest more than $50 million (€46.9m) in its Fairmont facility to install a new technology that will produce a high-protein animal and fish feed ingredient from a portion of the plant’s distiller’s grains, a co-product of ethanol production.

The project is one of the largest investments in co-product upgrading technologies ever made by a dry mill ethanol manufacturer, the company says.

The new patented technology, called Maximized Stillage Co-Products (MSC), was developed exclusively for the dry mill ethanol industry by Fluid Quip Process Technologies (FQPT).

The Fairmont plant will be just the fourth – and, to date, the largest – ethanol plant in the world to deploy the proven technology.

“MSC is an innovative, bolt-on technology that separates and upgrades a portion of distiller’s grains into a cost-competitive, high-protein feed ingredient intended to help meet the growing need for protein in feed rations around the world,” said Kevin Karasiuk, plant manager at FHR Fairmont.

“The technology provides an exciting new platform for FHR to compete in the alternative protein feed ingredient market.”

The Fairmont MSC project will require significant construction, including the addition of a new building and two protein dryers, which is expected to begin in the spring and will last about 12 months.

The project is expected to create about 120 construction jobs. The plant will remain in operation during construction.

The FHR plant buys 42 million bushels of corn annually to produce 120 million gallons of ethanol, 281,250 tonnes of distiller’s grains, and nearly 20 million pounds of distiller’s corn oil.

FQPT will provide the MSC technology, separation equipment, process engineering, construction oversight, and start-up support for the Fairmont system.

‘MSC leverages proven technology’

The MSC technology uses a series of mechanical processes to separate protein from the solids leftover after ethanol distillation.

Centrifuges are used to isolate protein molecules from residual fibre and carbohydrates, which is then sent to a protein dryer where it is dried into a fine powder.

The drying process is essential to ensuring the high-quality of the protein product.

“MSC leverages proven technology to provide a path for dry mill ethanol manufacturers to upgrade their co-products stream while enhancing plant ethanol and corn oil operations,” said Neal Jakel, VP of strategy and technology at FQPT.

FQPT aims to help ethanol plants produce higher value co-products by isolating valuable components within the corn kernel.

“The MSC helps ethanol producers to better diversify their revenue stream by entering new and quickly growing feed markets worldwide, which provides them a competitive edge,” Jakel added.

‘Higher value’

The high-protein feed produced using MSC is a combination of corn gluten (protein) and spent yeast.

It has an improved amino acid profile when compared to corn gluten meal produced at corn wet mills, while also having a higher protein concentration than spent yeast alone.

The MSC-produced feed will have at least 48% protein, making it a suitable ingredient for the aquaculture, pet food, and poultry industries, among others.

FHR will market the high-protein feed as NexPro protein ingredient.

“There is growing demand for protein in the world,” said Mark Kruse, general manager of grain and feed ingredients at FHR.

“NexPro will expand producers’ choices in the market and provide them with a higher value product than other high-protein feed ingredients.”

In addition to its high protein content, NexPro is expected to have about 3.5% crude fibre, 4.5% fat and 1.1% phosphorus.

The feed also contains yeast leftover from the ethanol fermentation process, containing lysine – an important amino acid essential for growth in animals – giving the product more total lysine than traditional corn gluten meal.

FHR and FQPT have conducted more than 15 NexPro feed studies with independent and well-respected university researchers to demonstrate value in tilapia, trout, shrimp, dairy, swine, and poultry industries.