Kansas Ethanol Plants Start Producing New Corn Diesel

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August 4, 2014

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By Megan Hart (Topeka Capital-Journal) Fuel is chemically identical to petroleum-based diesel
Two ethanol plants in Kansas have started turning a different part of corn into a fuel they say can replace conventional diesel.
Jeff Oestmann, president and CEO of East Kansas Agri-Energy in Garnett, said they use starch from corn to make ethanol for mixing into gasoline, and previously would sell the oil, fiber shell and gluten protein in the corn for use as feed. Now, the oil will be processed to make diesel, he said.
“We’re grinding the same amount of grain,” he said. “We’re making two renewable fuels from the same kernel of corn.”
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Oestmann said they plan to hire about 12 people and build a new facility to expand production. When the plant is completed next year, it will be able to produce about 3 million gallons of renewable diesel annually, he said.
WB Services, which is based in Sedgwick, developed the process over the last four years and is working with East Kansas Agri-Energy, said Ron Beemiller, president and CEO of WB. Some other companies have made plant-based versions of diesel before, he said, but their “hydrocracking” process is new.
It involves combining hydrogen with the corn oil, with some of the hydrogen combining to remove excess oxygen and some combining with the oil itself, Beemiller said. The process also requires high temperatures and pressure, but consumes relatively little energy because the reaction generates its own heat after a certain point, he said.
It could use other plant oils or even grease, Beemiller said, and most of its byproducts can be used in ethanol production. It also can create a fuel similar to natural gas, he said.
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The process involves mixing hydrogen with the corn oil to remove excess oxygen molecules, which wouldn’t create harmful waste, he (Keith Hohn, a professor of chemical engineering at Kansas State University) said — though the hydrogen likely would come from natural gas, meaning renewable fuel wouldn’t completely replace fossil fuels.
“You basically end up with water” when the hydrogen reacts with oxygen, he said. READ MORE and MORE (Advanced Biofuels USA-What’s the Difference between Biodiesel and Renewable (Green) Diesel?)

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