Quad County Corn Processors breaks ground for first corn kernel fiber to cellulosic ethanol plant

Quad County Corn Processors (QCCP) in Galva, Iowa, broke ground in August on an USD8.5 million bio-refinery that will convert corn kernel fiber into cellulosic ethanol. The new plant will be built next to the company’s existing 35 million gallon per year (gpy) corn ethanol facility.
The new plant will use QCCP’s Adding Cellulosic Ethanol (ACE) patent pending technology, which was developed by Travis Brotherson, plant engineer. Brotherson developed the ACE pretreatment and fermentation process which bolts onto the ethanol producer’s conventional corn starch ethanol process. It is expected to increase the plant’s ethanol capacity by 6%.
Other ethanol producers are interested in licensing the technology, but according to Delayne Johnson, QCCP’s general manager, they want to see the full-scale plant facility operating before making any decisions to move forward.
The ACE technology also is expected to improve the yield and quality of ethanol co-products, such as corn oil and dried distillers grains with solubles (DDGS). It has been shown to produce 300% more corn oil than the plant’s conventional conversion technology. Corn oil from ethanol plants has been increasingly sold to biodiesel producers and feed mills.
DDGS for livestock and poultry has traditionally been high in fiber. The ACE technology reduces that fiber and results in 40% more protein content.  
QCCP also is using Enogen corn in its corn starch ethanol facility, which Johnson notes reduces energy consumption by 5% and has increased ethanol yield by 1%. “ACE is a separate technology and can be used independently or in conjunction with Enogen,” he said.
Bob Dinneen, president and CEO, Renewable Fuels Association, said that QCCP received USD4.25 million from the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) and the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) as part of the Biomass Research and Development Initiative to develop the technology over four years.
Dinneen added that the QCCP groundbreaking, “is proof of the success of the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS) to spark innovation and investment, to stimulate job creation and economic development, and most important to produce millions of gallons of domestic renewable fuel in the name of energy independence.”
Construction on the new bio-refinery is expected to be completed by April 2014. 
(August 1, 2013)