BioFuels Journal

by Myke Feinman, BioFuels Journal Editor

The ceremony for the new corn oil extraction system at VeraSun Energy's Aurora, SD ethanol plant construction project was held April 24.

The system will allow the plant to use corn kernels for both ethanol and the extracted oil for biodiesel, making two renewable fuels from the same kernel.

Construction on VeraSun's system at Aurora will be completed at the end of the year, with plans to roll it out to two Iowa plants—Fort Dodge and Charles City.

The general contractor is Fagen Inc., Granite Falls, MN.

"The crude corn oil will be sold into the biodiesel market," said VeraSun CEO Don Endres.

“We expect to sell it for 35 to 40 cents a pound, in the same range as soybean oil,” he added.

Distillers Grains Product

In addition to creating a new co-product of crude corn oil, this system will also create a different type of distillers grains, called Corn Distillers Meal (CDM), which will contain higher protein levels and lower fat levels than conventional distillers grains.

Endres said VeraSun has been working with researchers at various Midwest universities on CDM feed trials.

"In feed trials so far, CDM has yielded increased gain per pound per head per day compared to DDGS," Endres said.

The Process

VeraSun’s Aurora plant, which began production in 2005, produces 120 million gallons of ethanol per year (MMGY and 380,000 tons of DDGS.

According to Endres, the DDGS will yield 8 MMGY crude corn oil and 360,000 tons of CDM per year.

To extract the oil, the plant will install the new system at the back end of its process.

The DDGS will be fed into an extractor with about 10% moisture level, and using hexane as a liquid solvent, the crude corn oil will be removed.

Endres said that the hexane will be removed from both the oil and the CDM and reused.

"This is a similar process used to produce soybean oil," Endres noted.

"We think the modifications we will make at the plant are relatively small to add this system," Endres said.

Endres projects a two-year payback. The company plans to invest approximately $100 million for the three facilities.

VeraSun recently completed a merger with US BioEnergy, and currently has a capacity of 1.09 Billion gallons of ethanol per year (BGY) with 11 plants currently producing ethanol. By the end of the year, the company will have 16 plants online, producing 1.64 BGY, making the company the largest producer of ethanol in the world.

For more information, call 605-696-7527.

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