POET to expand production

Biofuel producer POET says that is to produce 12 million gallons of biodiesel this year, thanks to its expansion of its new Volià production method to six of its plants.

POET director of business development Clayton Vaughan explains the product: ‘Voilà crude corn oil is a co-product from the ethanol industry which allows us to realise more value from grinding corn and it returns more value to the Poet biorefinery, making it readily available for the growing biodiesel industry.’

He continues: ‘It is unique because it comes from a completely different process for manufacturing ethanol. The process is called BPX which produces ethanol without the use of heat to extract starch from the corn. This creates a crude oil that has a lower free fatty acid profile. This means they can produce from much lower levels of residual waste that is left over.’

POET has been selling the corn oil-derived biodiesel since January and plans to roll out the technology into more plants soon.

POET plants producing corn oil technology are situated in Emmetsburg, Gowrie, Jewell and Hanlontown in Iowa, US.

‘The corn oil comes from the back end of the plant and we are able to take a stream of liquids that come from fermentation and capture this oil,’ Vaughan says.

‘The ethanol industry is experiencing a dramatic change as the industry learns to take the corn oil out of corn distillers grains this has allowed us to produce higher protein lower energy distillers grains that are really well-suited for producers.’