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Economics of Germ Preseparation for Dry-Grind Ethanol Facilities

¹Graduate research assistant, and professor, respectively, Department of Agricultural Engineering, University of Illinois, Urbana, IL 61801. Mention of product or trade names does not imply endorsement by the University of Illinois. ²Corresponding author. E-mail: vsingh@uiuc.edu

A detailed economic analysis of a 914 tonnes/day (36,000 bu/day) “Quick Germ” ethanol process was performed. The Quick Germ ethanol process is a combination of a dry-grind and a wet-milling ethanol process. The Quick Germ ethanol process increases the coproduct value in the dry-grind ethanol process by recovering germ before fermentation. Germ is recovered using the conventional wet-milling degermination process. Economic assessment of the Quick Germ process proved profitable. The savings achieved by recovering germ as a coproduct and by increasing the fermentor capacity due to removal of nonfermentables from the corn mash will reduce the manufacturing cost of ethanol by 2.69 ¢/L (10.19 ¢/gal or $0.265/bu) when compared to the conventional dry-grind ethanol process.