In late 2024, IFF launched two high-performing enzyme solutions—trademarked OPTIMASH AX and OPTIMASH F200—as a corn oil-optimizing combination that reduces the amount of oil lost to the wet cake.“Through our studies, we’ve found that a lot of ethanol producers are making ethanol close to theoretical yield,” says Marina Chow, research and development leader in grain processing for IFF. “But for oil recovery, what we’re finding is the majority of customers are recovering at 60%. That translates to a lot of theoretical yield and room for more oil recovery.”&nbsp;And that, Chow says, means massive volumes of distillers corn oil (DCO) remain untapped and still available for mechanical solids separation—the hardware of extraction—and enzymes are vital to freeing up those latent yields. “We know we need mechanical and biological, and chemical can enhance the mechanical,” Chow says, adding that IFF immerses itself in all aspects of DCO extraction, collaborating as much as possible with leading equipment and technology providers in the space.Producers leveraging today’s specialized enzymes in tandem with mechanical separation technologies often install additional yield-boosting solutions like syrup conditioning, downstream demulsifiers and associated dosing systems, deploying a full suite of complementary tools for DCO maximization. Strategies vary, Chow says, but whole stillage is where it all starts. &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;Enzymes and Availability&nbsp;&nbsp; Through its robust oil mapping technology, IFF measures the amount of DCO in every operational unit and process to understand where it is being lost. Consistently, IFF identified the largest area of DCO loss as the whole stillage separation stage, Chow says.“We focused on the whole stillage separation stage to change the characteristics of the stillage,” she says. “By treating with enzymes early, it pushes oil and makes it so the wet cake holds on to less oil.”The paired OPTIMASH enzymes loosen the fiber and allow release of the DCO, Chow explains. Company data shows the enzymes boost corn oil yield by 15.7%, from 0.89 pounds per bushel to 1.03.The market today is different from 10 years ago, when IFF started learning about how biological solutions could help increase corn oil availability, Chow says. “Ten years ago, adoption didn’t have the momentum it has now because oil prices were lower. They left that in wet cake so poultry feed, etc., had that fat content.”But as DCO prices and demand have increased, more producers want to extract that oil instead of leaving it in feed coproducts.&nbsp;With robust corn oil markets, the ethanol industry has embraced IFF’s paired OPTIMASH solution. “Reception has been very good because the results have been very good, even at high-yielding ethanol plants,” Chow says. “Customers seem to really appreciate the amount of support given when implementing, as well.”Adding oil recovery enzymes can impact downstream processes, including fouling and changed process characteristics. So IFF carefully monitors all downstream processes for its customers. &nbsp;“We don’t just drop the solution in and leave,” Chow says. “We stay and we work with the customer.”The solution also has the added benefit of lowering CI scores, in that the enzymes dewater, relieving pressure on the dryers. As the enzymes are cellulases, they will also work on corn kernel fiber. “Our customers find that by adding these enzymes to fermentation, they can get the benefit of qualifying for CARB, and also [generate] cellulosic credits,” Chow says.Dose and Flow Management&nbsp; Trucent’s TruDose system measures emulsion breaker needs in the feed and doses appropriately, says Bob Fesser, business development and sales manager for Trucent. “Feed is constantly fluctuating so you can’t just program a dose,” he says. “TruDose measures and makes adjustments.”&nbsp;Trucent has studied the stages of DCO loss in an ethanol plant and pinpointed about 250 factors that come into play. Fifty of those are significant, Fesser says, including viscosity, temperature and emulsion breakers.&nbsp;While Trucent no longer offers an emulsion breaker to the ethanol industry, TruDose works with any emulsion breaker additive, Fesser says. “We developed a way to help plants optimize their dose rate and maintain that dose rate regardless of process fluctuations. We can show our customer where the industry is with regard to several key factors to optimize DCO yields, beyond just the extraction equipment.”But Trucent also focuses on the mechanical side, offering its COSS-SL (Corn Oil Separation System – Stokes’ Law) centrifuge system. With its disc stack redesign, COSS-SL helps producers recover more DCO, particularly when paired with TruShield-SC, a syrup conditioning mesh screening step that further reduces particle size before the centrifuge stage.&nbsp;“We know if there’s a pretreatment ahead of separation, by getting oil to coalesce into larger droplets and run in equipment longer, you’re going to get higher yields,” Fesser says. “We redesigned the disc stack based on those corn oil properties to have more surface area, which, in turn, increased efficiency 3% to 5% &nbsp;... just by changing design of the disc stack.”&nbsp;With COSS-SL and TruShield, producers might see up to 10% more extraction efficiency, Fesser says.&nbsp;Upstream DCO recovery solutions are increasing interest in mechanical separation technologies, he adds. “They look promising to the point that plants are buying more extraction equipment from us because they know there is going to be more oil available.”&nbsp;The evolution looks promising, he says. “As an industry, we’re always getting better.”Mechanical Efficiency&nbsp;&nbsp; ICM’s FOT Oil Recovery technology also focuses on the wet cake. “FOT Oil Recovery is a mechanical solution that utilizes the existing whole stillage dewatering decanter stage with new design centrifuges that have improved capacity and efficiency that add the capability for a washing step,” says Adam Anderson, director of sales for ICM. “The mechanical ability to separate and wash the wet cake is the best solution a plant can have to control and minimize the oil that would otherwise go with the wet cake.”ICM emphasizes a fully integrated approach to DCO recovery and makes its team of technology integration specialists available for customers who want to enhance their mechanical solutions with biological or chemical additives.&nbsp;“We look at it as a holistic system,” says Alex Wayman, director of project development for ICM. “We do provide a mechanical solution, but if there’s a need or a want from a customer to bring in a chemical solution, we’re more than happy to sit down with a customer ... and be more of a consultant.”“In the last decade, there have been significant developments with enzymes, yeasts and demulsifiers, as well as mechanical approaches and upgrades, all designed to make the oil available for recovery,” Anderson says. “A lot of plants have incorporated these, and it’s helped the industry evolve from the 0.5-pound-per-bushel baseline yields that were common in the early years of oil recovery, to 1-plus pound per bushel that have become common today. This evolution led to impressive reductions in oil lost with the syrup, but there is still opportunity with oil lost to the wet cake. And this is where we see the opportunity for the next great yield baseline to be set. It’s the missing lever that will allow plants to get as close as possible to the max percent recovery of their incoming oil. And stay there.”Anderson adds, “It’s a wide range and we’ve got the bench of subject matter experts that understand the entire plant and the full integration of this technology and everything you need to bring along with it to maximize corn oil recovery.”&nbsp;The system is also efficient with dewatering, lowering energy consumption of the dryers and, therefore, CI scores. The proprietary two-part separation process integrates post-distillation, optimizing the feed to the evaporator and ensuring a drier cake. The resulting energy efficiency gains contribute to reduced operational costs and enhanced overall plant performance.&nbsp;Elite Octane in Atlantic, Iowa, has installed FOT Oil Recovery and reported a DCO yield of 1.35 pounds per bushel in late 2024.&nbsp;Wayman and Anderson point out that comparing corn oil yield in pounds per bushel is not apples to apples, given higher fat content in some corn feedstocks than others. “You don’t put oil into the process,” Wayman says. “What you’ve got comes as a feedstock.”&nbsp;“It’s been fun to talk to the customers in different regions,” Anderson says. “So as we come to them with this message of, ‘Hey, not all corn feedstock is made the same,’ they appreciate that and can realize what is possible with the feedstock they have.” &nbsp;Together, these biological, chemical and mechanical processes, and others like them, offer whole-plant pathways to optimized DCO recovery.&nbsp;“It’s literally: Make it available, keep it available, recover it,” Anderson says. Author: Lisa Gibson&nbsp; lisa.gibson@sageandstonestrategies.com&nbsp;

2025-02-28 - Parallel Pathways (Ethanol Producer Magazine)

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Corn oil optimization is now a plant-wide endeavor, with biological, chemical and mechanical processes working together to reach maximum availability and extraction.

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