Focus on ‘Dry Grind Ethanol Plants'

May 15, 2001

The National Corn Growers Association (NCGA) is continuing its work on "degermination" in an ethanol dry mill with the hopes of improving the profitability of dry grind ethanol plants.

"Research has already proven the capabilities of the degermination technology," says Vic Miller of Oelwein, IA, chairman of the NCGA Customer & Business Development Action Team. "NCGA is working to prove that this known technology has economic benefits."

Last summer, NCGA announced an agreement had been reached for a host site at the Aberdeen, SD, facility of Heartland Grain Fuels, LP. Heartland Grain Fuels is a partnership between the South Dakota Wheat Growers Cooperative, one of the largest in the state of South Dakota, and Farmland Industry.

The host plant has been operating since 1993 and is one of the prototype dry grind ethanol plants that have become very common as ethanol expanded in the 1990s. "One of the anticipated benefits of degerming is to allow more fermentation space to exist in an ethanol plant," said Miller. "We're currently investigating that claim and validating its importance for the economic benefits of degermination."