GERM OIL RECOVERY IN DRY-GRIND ETHANOL PLANTS USING MEMBRANE TECHNOLOGY

Non Technical Summary Ethanol production, estimated to be 6.5 billion gallons in January of 2008, is expanding at an astonishing rate and has placed huge demands on the profitability of ethanol plants. Prairie Gold's approach to alleviating the high cost of corn as a feedstock is to provide ethanol plants with additional coproducts such as corn oil using our GORME (Germ Oil Recovery with Membranes and Ethanol) process. GORME integrates corn fractionation and our patented technology to separate and concentrate the oil with simultaneous recycle of the ethanol. Because GORME uses the plant's ethanol, there are built-in process efficiencies and economics compared to petroleum-based or off-site germ processing. Unlike other fractionation processes being marketed today, GORME returns all non-oil components back to the fermentors and/or DDGS, thus ensuring no loss of valuable starch and protein. Ethanol yields and DDGS protein quality are maintained. The marketing advantages of GORME are two-fold: crude corn oil is sold directly to oil marketers and refiners instead of selling germ to a jobber at a discount, and a green nontoxic renewable extractant is used instead of a petroleum-based solvent.