Coproducts Corn Fiber
Fiber
Frustration The U.S. EPA hasn’t approved a corn fiber pathway in more than four years, but hope is renewed with a new administration. Meanwhile, NREL has pitched a new cellulose volume measurement method to help address EPA’s concerns with accuracy. By Lisa Gibson
The stalled U.S. EPA approval of corn kernel fiber-to-ethanol pathways could be having a $1 billion impact on a 15-billion-gallon-peryear ethanol industry, says Jim Ramm, director of engineering for EcoEngineers. That’s assuming 3% of overall production could be from fiber and a $2 premium. It’s worst-case scenario, yes, but it’s realistic, nonetheless. EPA approved its last fiber-to-ethanol pathway in December of 2017. At that time, EPA, led by Administrator Scott Pruitt, outlined concerns around the accuracy in measuring the cellulosic portion of ethanol production. The slammed door has forced ethanol producers to distribute their cellulosic volumes to California or Oregon markets (where fuel standards recognize the pathways), and technology developers to overcome the volume measurement challenge. “I think that the industry has really responded to that in terms of the methods that are out there,” Ramm says. “The methods that are out there can demonstrate high degrees of accuracy. It’s really accurate in terms of determining the converted fractions of starch and cellulose in the fermenter.” The first five pathways approved before December 2017 were Edeniq 1.0. “That was a baseline methodology and really
FIBER PIPE: Corn fiber-to-ethanol pathway approvals were shut down in 2017, under then U.S. EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt. Elite Octane in Atlantic, Iowa, is one of many plants with corn fiber-to-ethanol capabilities that have applied for approval under new EPA Administrator Michael Regan’s leadership. And some plants that had applied before 2017 are reapplying. PHOTO: ELITE OCTANE LLC
14 | ETHANOL PRODUCER MAGAZINE | JUNE 2021
