"With its 55 MMgy ethanol plant near completion in Merrill, Iowa, Plymouth Energy LLC is already looking ahead at expanding its product offering," Ethanol Producer Magazine said. "A sister company named Plymouth Oil LLC has been formed to produce food-grade corn oil from fractionated corn germ and will send the starch from the corn to the ethanol plant for fermentation, according to Dave Hoffman, a board member of both companies and founder of Plymouth Oil. Hoffman said the new fractionation and extraction unit will help to address the food-versus-fuel debate by producing both." According to EPM Plymouth Oil will use solvent extraction to produce the corn oil and defatted germ. "Plymouth Energy will supply approximately half of Plymouth Oil’s capacity of 400 tons of corn per day," EPM said. "Plymouth Oil will produce approximately 80 tons of corn oil per day. Removing the germ and oil increases the protein content of the distillers grains to 45 percent to 47 percent, Hoffman said, making them more usable in the poultry and swine markets."

(Ethanol Producer Magazine, September 2008)

(http://ethanolproducer.com/…)

The separation of oil from corn is considered to be an important revenue generator for future ethanol plants. The one drawback is that compared to oilseed crops such as soybeans, rapeseed, camelina and sunflowers, the corn kernel has very low oil content -- usually on the order of just 4 percent. Soybean oil, which is the primary feedstock for biodiesel production in the U.S., contains about 20 percent oil. Considering that U.S. biodiesel producers are looking for additional feedstocks, corn oil produced by an expanding ethanol industry would be one option. (Todd Neeley)