Distillers grains' hidden reserves

Biodiesel Magazine
By Ron Kotrba June 29, 2011

From corn to ethanol, biodiesel, cellulosic biofuel, zein, high-protein feed and who knows, the kitchen sink? Maybe one day we'll find our own universe locked in a kernel of corn.
Yesterday at the Fuel Ethanol Workshop in Indy I sat in on an interesting set of presentations by two University of Minnesota researchers, Pavel Krasutsky and Doug Tifanny, both of whom are working on a project in collaboration with Crown Iron Works and Glycos Biotechnologies to take distillers dried grains with solubles (DDGS)—basically corn minus the starch left over from ethanol production—and employ ethanol, as Tiffany says, as a solvent, reagent and preservative.

The idea is to use ethanol in a solvent extraction process to separate out the fiber, protein, oil, FFAs and zein to make a high-protein feed, cellulosic ethanol, biodiesel (and glycerin, which, in turn, with the help of GlycosBio, is converted over to ethanol).

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