Progress 07/01/03 to 06/30/04
Outputs
4. What were the most significant accomplishments this past year? This final report documents accomplishments conducted under a Non-funded Cooperative Agreement between ERRC and MBI International, Lansing, Michigan, entitled "Enhancing Profitability of Corn-to-Ethanol Production Through New Co-Products and Processes". The purpose of the agreement was for MBI International to conduct additional research on ERRC/ARS technologies in order to facilitate commercialization. The project began March 1, 2003 and was completed on February 29, 2004. ERRC staff did the following: 1. Provided detailed information to MBI on processes to extract corn fiber oil and on ARS's preliminary and updated (2003) cost analysis for these processes. 2. Sent a complete set of all ERRC publications on corn fiber coproducts that included 23 patents, publications, proceedings, and trade articles. 3. Located a source of crude and refined corn fiber oil extracted under GMP conditions and assisted
in obtaining this oil at no cost. 4. Assisted MBI in identifying two clinical services companies who offered to advise ERRC and MBI on safety and feeding corn fiber oil to human subjects. Quotes for their services were obtained and forwarded to MBI for consideration of funding. 5. Located and provided MBI with a clinical investigator who agreed to conduct a human clinical study on the health-promoting effects of corn fiber oil and its components at no cost to MBI. 6. Provided MBI with the ARS 15 and 25 mgy base case dry grind ethanol model on ASPEN software plus the corresponding Excel cost model and provided many hours of advice on their use via phone, e-mail, and in- person discussions. 7. Provided MBI with the ARS 25 mgy ASPEN model with Quick Germ modification along with the corresponding Excel cost model and provided many hours of advice on their use via phone, e-mail, and in-person discussions. 8. Provided MBI with Publications regarding other corn fiber coproducts,
including CAX, Corn Fiber Gum, and Polyamine conjugates and offered to work with MBI to conduct preliminary cost analyses for these products. 9. Received an extensive final report from MBI on their progress on this project on May 31, 2004. The following was done by MBI as summarized in their final report, dated May 31, 2004: 1. MBI developed a process and cost analysis for extracting corn fiber oil from wet-mill corn fiber and a dry-grind ethanol plant having fiber recovery processes. Some of the information came from a commercial oil extraction equipment manufacturer and the additional information came from the Cost Engineer at ERRC. The wet mill model projected production of 4.2 to 8.4 million pounds of corn fiber oil. The dry grind model would yield 400,000 pounds of corn fiber oil annually. The capital and operating costs for these plants were estimated. It was determined that corn fiber oil cannot compete with generic phytosterols head-to-head in a weak phytosterol
market. Corn fiber oil could only be a successful commercial product if the phytosterol market grows significantly and/or if corn fiber oil was demonstrated to have additional nutritional/health benefits. MBI did not pursue the services offered by the Clinicians at The USDA Jean Mayer Human Nutrition Center or the consultants referred to them by ERRC to conduct studies on the safety or potential health- promoting effects of corn fiber oil. 2. MBI developed a process and cost analysis of the benefits of removing fiber and germ from corn, prior to fuel ethanol production, using advanced dry milling technologies. One of the models also consisted of an additional process to expel crude corn oil from germ, using an expeller process. The analyses showed very little additional return on investment for removing germ and fiber in a dry grind ethanol plant using the methods proposed.
Impacts
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Publications
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