Execs say new ethanol plant will be greener, leaner

~ The operation will use the most technologically advanced method available.

The ethanol plant planned for the Southeast Missouri Regional Port Authority will use a cutting-edge technology that company executives promise will increase yields, decrease energy consumption and make the plant much more competitive in an increasingly crowded field.

Executives at SEMO Milling and Ethanex Energy, which announced their new joint-venture plant last week, said they are using a technology that most others don't -- fractionation, a new biorefining method that separates corn, the key ingredient, into three "fractions" -- bran, germ and endosperm.

The endosperm is then fermented to create ethanol, while the remaining parts are converted into value-added products, including food-grade products and bioenergy to power the plant.

"Fractionation is becoming a big buzz word," said Ken DeLine of Colorado, one of the primary investors and board chairman. "By separating those three components out, it makes your ethanol plant more competitive."

The ethanol plant is expected to be complete and producing ethanol late next year.

DeLine said the patent-pending process is the most efficient and technologically advanced method currently available in the industry. The process allows a purer stream of starch for fermentation, which requires less water and less energy and produces more ethanol.

Fractionation is an environmentally friendly process, DeLine said, that uses fewer resources, creates more ethanol and eliminates waste products. By increasing revenue from the corn mill and ethanol facility and decreasing expenses, the plant will have a break-even point of about 43 cents a gallon less than a conventional dry corn ethanol facility, he said.

DeLine wouldn't say how much the new ethanol plant will cost, but he said it is in the same ballpark as the other two proposed for Southeast Missouri, in the $150 million to $200 million range. The fractionation process will be done at SEMO Milling, the adjacent $20 million mill at the port, DeLine said.

The plant -- projected to produce 100 million gallons of ethanol a year -- will be more expensive than other plants initially, DeLine said, but operating costs then decrease once the plant gets up and running. Removing the germ and bran from the corn means a much purer, cleaner starch is going into the facility, he said.

"At most facilities, they grind the whole kernel of corn," DeLine said. "That's the easiest thing to do. But the purer the starch, it lowers your cost and increases your capacity."

The port plant won't be the first to use the fractionation process, DeLine said, but it will be among the first.

"It's novel," he said. "It's going to be leading the industry. We're helping lead the charge into fractionation technology."

Brian Sherbacow, chief operating officer at Ethanex, said the management team has the experience to do it. Al Knapp, for example, is the president and CEO and he previously was with TIC, the second largest constructor of ethanol facilities in the country.

The plant at the port -- along with a second plant Ethanex is planning at St. Marys, Kan. -- are the first plants in the new company's history.

Another unique aspect of the port plant will be that it will utilize a "completely green" process, meaning it will not utilize fossil fuels, he said. Instead, the plant here will use a "biomass broiler," which will burn the corn's byproducts -- the bran and the germ -- to create energy to power the system.

"In order to be competitive, you have to be low cost," Sherbacow said. "The cost of production per gallon has to be the lowest in the country. This way is infinitely more efficient."

smoyers@semissourian.com

335-6611, extension 137