The Quest for Maximum Yield: More Yield Strategies

Ethanol Producer Magazine
By Holly Jessen August 15, 2011

Other companies introduced new products or displayed equipment at the FEW.

Almost a year after signing an exclusive agreement to develop and commercialize yeasts for the grain ethanol industry, Lallemand Ethanol Technology and Xylogenics Inc. have delivered. The new patent-pending, as yet unnamed, yeast offers ethanol producers an uptick in yield. “We have seen anywhere from 2 and 4 percent increase in yield,” says Craig Pilgrim, marketing manager for Lallemand.

The new yeast is currently undergoing plant-scale testing at two or three ethanol facilities and is available in liquid form for long-term plant trials. Besides producing more ethanol with the same amount of corn, the yeast reduces the time needed for fermentation. Pilgrim said he couldn’t give exact figures but that it might be somewhere around a couple hours. “That’s one of the things that we’re trying to pinpoint in testing on the larger scale,” he tells EPM.

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