New advances in ethanol production found in the US

Direvo Industrial Biotechnology has completed the scale-up of its first two products in collaboration with the Centre for Crops Utilisation Research (CCUR) and the BioCentury Research Farm (BCRF) at Iowa State University, US.

The two products have been named by Direvo as BluZyTM-D and BluZyTM-P.

A team led by director of CCUR and BCRF, Larry Johnson, conducted lab-scale and pilot-scale trials to test the effects of the enzyme technology on ethanol production and processed samples of enzyme-modified DDGS and unmodified DDGS for analytical and nutritional comparison purposes.

Direvo validated the performance of BluZyTM-D that substantially improved nutritional value as compared to commercially available DDGS. The production was further scaled up at BCRF where more than one ton of DDGS was produced for further evaluation in broiler feeding trials at major universities across the US.

BluZyTM-P was also evaluated and was found to improve the process efficiency of ethanol production at multiple steps and simplify back end oil separation.

'The pilot-scale facilities for dry-grind ethanol production at BCRF offered us the ideal opportunity to test this new technology prior to full-scale production,’ says Klaudija Milos, VP of Business Unit Industrial Solutions. ‘Our recent project results demonstrate the validity of our technologies and the economic benefit for two large industries in the US, ethanol and animal production.’