VeraSun launches corn oil extraction business at Aurora, SD plant; will sell oil for biodiesel production

In South Dakota, VeraSun Energy said that it has commenced construction of a corn oil extraction works at its 120 Mgy ethanol plant near Aurora. The unit will extract corn oil from distillers grains, a by-product of the ethanol process. The new unit is expected to generate up to 8 Mgy of corn oil, which will be sold to biodiesel producers. The company plans to expand the technology to its Fort Dodge and Charles City plants by the end of 2009.

The announcement mirrors a similar set of deals by GreenShift Agrifuels. Green Shift and Global Ethanol have formed a biodiesel joint venture, GS Global Biodiesel, which will own and operate a 10 Mgy biodiesel plant in Lakota. The new facility will be online before the end of 2008. GS will extract 10 Mgy of crude corn oil from Global Ethanol’s distillers grains. The grains are a by-product from the company’s 157 Mgy corn ethanol produced at its plants in Lakota, IA and Riga, MI.

GS CleanTech Corporation recently inked an agreement with Northeast Biofuels to extract 10 Mgy of crude corn oil from the distillers grain produced at NEB’s 114 Mgy ethanol plant in Volney, NY. In the Northeast Biofuels deal, GS CleanTech will provide an extraction system to NEB and in turn receives a right to purchase the extracted corn oil at a contract price. GS AgriFuels Corporation plans to construct a 10 Mgy corn oil biodiesel facility adjacent to the NEB facility.

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