| The production of fuel ethanol using the corn dry grind process produces distillers dried grains with solubles (DDGS) and carbon dioxide as the only coproducts. The DDGS are primarily used as feed for ruminant animals and have limited use in non-ruminants due to the high fiber content. The market price of DDGS has significantly decreased as the number of new dry grind production facilities has increased. The extraction of new coproducts from corn processing has been a long term focus of research in our laboratory. Recently, we began investigating the potential and feasibility of “co-production” of value added products with simultaneous production of ethanol. Several possible strategies have been investigated for making products that can enhance existing coproducts or produce ones that are unique and would represent completely new feeds for the industry. Preliminary data suggest a number of different microbially-derived products can be produced in series (or parallel) with ethanol production while utilizing many common unit operations. This strategy could greatly increase the number of possible products produced by a corn processing facility and could improve the overall economics of fuel ethanol production. An example of the integrated production of a value added product will be presented and an integrated cost model for production will be shown. |