Plastics Cozy Up to Distillers Grains

Distillers Grains Producion & Markets
By Holly Jessen January 16, 2012

Pilot testing gives new product the green light

It’s a concept that has positives for both the ethanol industry and the plastics industry. Can a Nebraska company process wet distillers grains into a biobased resin to replace conventional petroleum-based resins? Laurel BioComposite LLC says yes.

The company is proving the concept at a pilot plant in rural Coleridge while moving ahead with plans to break ground this year on a full-scale production facility just a few miles away in Laurel, Neb. The pilot plant, currently inhabiting a 500-square-foot area in a machine shed of a farmer-investor, produces about 250 pounds of the biomaterial an hour and could easily be scaled up to 1,000 pounds an hour, says Lou Luedtke, startup manager.

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