Flint Hills Resources announced it will invest more than $50 million in its Fairmont, Neb. ethanol plant to install a new technology that will produce a high protein animal and fish feed ingredient from a portion of the plant’s distiller grains, a co-product of ethanol production. The project is one of the largest investments in co-product upgrading technologies ever made by a dry mill ethanol manufacturer. 

The new patented technology, called Maximized Stillage Co-Products _(MSC), was developed exclusively for the dry mill ethanol industry by Fluid Quip Process Technologies. The Fairmont plant will be just the fourth – and, to date, the largest – ethanol plant in the world to deploy the proven technology. 

“MSC is an innovative, bolt-on technology that separates and upgrades a portion of distillers grains into a cost-competitive, high protein feed ingredient intended to help meet the growing need for protein in feed rations around the world,” said Kevin Karasiuk, plant manager at Flint Hills Resources Fairmont. “The technology provides an exciting new platform for Flint Hills Resources to compete in the alternative protein feed ingredient market.”

The Fairmount MSC project will require significant construction including the addition of a new building and two protein dryers. Construction is expected to begin in the spring and will last about 12 months. The project is expected to create about 120 construction jobs. The plant will remain in operation during construction.

The Flint Hills Resources Fairmont plant buys 42 million bushels of corn annually to produce 120 million gallons of ethanol, 310,000 tons of distillers grains and nearly 20 million pounds of distillers corn oil. The plant employs about 60 people. 

Fluid Quip Process Technologies will provide the MSC technology, separation equipment, process engineering, construction oversight, and startup support for the Fairmount system.

The high protein feed produced using MSC is a combination of corn gluten (protein) and spent yeast.  It has an improved amino acid profile when compared to corn gluten meal produced at corn wet mills while also having a higher protein concentration than spent yeast alone. The MSC-produced feed will have at least 48 percent protein, making it an excellent ingredient for the aquaculture industry. The feed has comparable shelf life to corn gluten meal and soybean meal and can be stored in silos or distributed through various transportation modes including bulk packaging and containers for export. Flint Hills Resources will market the high protein feed as NexPro™ protein ingredient. 

In addition to its high protein content, NexPro is expected to have about 3.5 percent crude fiber, 4.5 percent fat and 1.1 percent phosphorus. The feed also contains yeast leftover from the ethanol fermentation process. The remaining yeast contains lysine – an important amino acid essential for growth in animals – giving the product more total lysine than traditional corn gluten meal.