Ethanol Blog

An Illinois ethanol plant will use new technology to extract a valuable corn protein from corn, according to an article by the Associated Press which appeared on THonline.com (http://bit.ly/…).

Big River Prairie Gold LLC has completed a lengthy permit process at its new zein extraction facility near the company's plant in Galva, Ill.

The project was a joint venture between ethanol producer Big River Resources LLC and Prairie Gold Inc., a company with patented technologies to produce high-value corn products.

The Galva site will use an extraction process that requires little energy, no chemicals and no fermentation to produce zein that will be used for food and pharmaceutical products. The company's patented products will be called "Amazein."

Zein appears as a fine, pale-yellow powder and can be used for such products as biodegradable plastics, paper coatings, food packaging, antioxidants, medical devices and pharmaceutical products, as well as food and cosmetics.

The zein is extracted before ethanol is produced, then the corn returns to the ethanol plant to make ethanol since the starch component in corn remains unaffected, according to the article. The process to get the zein product will lower the dried distillers grains by only about 300 tons of the plant’s annual production of 342,000 tons.

Cheryl Anderson can be reached at cheryl.anderson@dtn.com.

(ES)

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