Economics of germ preseparation for dry-grind ethanol facilities

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 cents/L (10.19 cents/gal or $0.265/bu) when compared to the conventional dry-grind ethanol process.