I’ve written a lot about ethanol for our fuel supply- both good and bad.  (Ethanol as fuel stock and how the business case is provided, among others- check for ‘ethanol’ in the search at the right.) And, now that fuel demand is down, it’s not surprising that the stipulation that gasoline be augmented by ethanol is creating lots of problems. (For example, ethanol production is about 13.2 billion gallons- which is about 10% of the US petroleum production.   With the drought, and the requirement that 14 billion gallons be combined this year, and lower gasoline demand, something has got to give.) So, it’s not surprising that the ethanol producers are looking at other things into which they can convert their corn, to insure the high returns (i.e., prices) they yield.

Poet LLC (You know, the company with the quirky ads on TV) and Great Plains Renewal Energy recognize that the downturn in demand will not be countered by lobbying for 15% (it’s called E85) ethanol in fuel- since many (most?) car engines will not tolerate the concoction.  (Engine wear is the primary issue.)

So, it’s almost back to the drawing board. But, honestly, most of this has been tried – on one scale or another- before. Corn is basically starch, protein, oil, and fiber. That’s the essence of the kernel. Ethanol production has been capitalizing on the conversion of the starch- but the other components can be used, as well.

For example, the oils in the kernel can be harvested to render the product viable for animal feed- or even biodiesel. According to the US Energy Information Administration (I kid you not- this agency exists), we doubled our use of oil from corn for biodiesel last year- from 650 gigagrams (304 million pounds) to 1250 gigagrams (585 million pounds). That means that,  except for soybean oil stocks, corn oil was the biggest ingredient (overtaking tallow, poultry fats, and yellow grease) in biodiesel. And, that was in spite of the record drought conditions that decimated corn production (and raised corn prices). Some 25 of the Poet facilities are doing this (and, therefore, hedging against ethanol margins)- which means they can supply the entire 2012 usage by themselves! (Just so you know, this will yield some 68 million gallons of biodiesel, annually.)

And, then, we have Green Plains, which is attempting to harvest the carbon dioxide (which is one of the real ways we can lower our carbon footprint) from ethanol fermentors to grow algae for fish food and chemicals. (We have researched harvesting the CO2 from power plant emissions – along with some of the waste heat- to grow algae and convert that to natural gas, which can then be added to the feedstocks employed by that same power plant.) Green Plains hopes to break even on its ethanol production- and make big profits from the algae sales. (This is building on what they’ve already learned so far: In 2012 they lost $ 30 million or so on ethanol production, but made $ 25 million from it’s corn oil operations.)

Poet is also in cahoots with ADM (Archer Daniels Midland) to use the fiber in the corn to add to our cereals, nutrition bars, and baked goods. The goal is to have it supply oat and wheat fibers. And, that’s on top of Poet’s plans to use the fiber as an animal feed ingredient, which needs much less refining and purification. (Hence, the reason it is not yet being fed to us humans…) On the other hand, Badger State Ethanol is trying to product an animal feed that has less fiber than standard grains, that are more digestible by hogs and poultry (ruminants, like cattle, have no such problems with high fiber product).

Let’s not forget about the protein in corn. One of the goals is to produce zein (or similar proteins) from distiller’s dried grains (aka corn gluten meal) for animal feed. (Right now, this protein is used in coatings and adhesives).

Proof that while these firms may be energy companies to you and me- they know they are really farmers. And, they hope to run their corn business like hog farmers- to make money from everything, but the squeal.

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