FHR Unveils a $50M Gambit to Make Überprotein at Ethanol Plants

by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest) In Nebraska, Flint Hills Resources will invest more than $50M in its Fairmont, Neb. ethanol plant to install a new technology that will produce a high protein animal and fish feed ingredient from a portion of the plant’s distiller grains, a co-product of ethanol production. The project is one of the largest investments in co-product upgrading technologies ever made by a dry mill ethanol manufacturer.

Not that the Koch brothers don’t think about renewables and making the world safe for the RFS every day. It’s just that, at Flint Hills, if it’s going to get built, it better work in eyes of the Department of the Precious Benjamins.

So, it’s protein, protein, protein. And now we have residue from ethanol production making a high-end meal that will command that high-end price. That’s Food from Fuel, if you will — the successor to Food vs Fuel.

“MSC is an innovative, bolt-on technology that separates and upgrades a portion of distillers grains into a cost-competitive, high protein feed ingredient intended to help meet the growing need for protein in feed rations around the world,” said Kevin Karasiuk, plant manager at Flint Hills Resources Fairmont. “The technology provides an exciting new platform for Flint Hills Resources to compete in the alternative protein feed ingredient market.”

The high protein feed produced using MSC is a combination of corn gluten (protein) and spent yeast. It has an improved amino acid profile when compared to corn gluten meal produced at corn wet mills while also having a higher protein concentration than spent yeast alone. The MSC-produced feed will have at least 48 percent protein making it an excellent ingredient for the aquaculture, pet food and poultry industries among others. The feed has comparable shelf life to corn gluten meal and soybean meal and can be stored in silos or distributed through various transportation modes including bulk packaging and containers for export. Flint Hills Resources will market the high protein feed as NexPro protein ingredient.

The new technology, called Maximized Stillage Co-Products, was developed exclusively for the dry mill ethanol industry by Fluid Quip Process Technologies. The Fairmont plant will be just the fourth – and, to date, the largest – ethanol plant in the world to deploy the technology. Fluid Quip Process Technologies will provide the MSC technology, separation equipment, process engineering, construction oversight, and startup support for the Fairmount system.

The technology uses a series of mechanical processes to separate protein from the solids leftover after ethanol distillation. Centrifuges are used to isolate protein molecules from residual fiber and carbohydrates. Once the protein is isolated, it is sent to a protein dryer where it is dried into a fine powder. The drying process is essential to ensuring the high-quality of the protein product.

In addition to its high protein content, NexPro is expected to have about 3.5 percent crude fiber, 4.5 percent fat and 1.1 percent phosphorus. The feed also contains yeast leftover from the ethanol fermentation process. The remaining yeast contains lysine – an important amino acid essential for growth in animals – giving the product more total lysine than traditional corn gluten meal. READ MORE