Course: BFM 101 Biofuels Fundamentals

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Corn Grain Ethanol Processing

Corn Grain Ethanol Processing

Two processes are used to convert corn to ethanol: wet milling and dry milling. Dry milling is used by over 90 percent of corn ethanol plants in the U.S. Water is used in many processing steps to convert corn to ethanol (Figure 3.2). High quality water is needed for the success of biological processes. Cooling water is needed to control fermenter temperatures and in distillation. Typically, a 50 million gallon a year facility will use 500 gallons per minute of water [3]. However, much of this water is treated and reused or recycled. Consumptive water use is from evaporation during cooling and water treatment. This water lost from the plant cannot be recycled; however, it is a very small fraction of the total water used (Table 3.1).

For more information on ethanol wet and dry milling processes, please visit:
http://www.ethanolrfa.org/pages/how-ethanol-is-made

Table 3.1  Ethanol Plant Water Use: These survey results are from 150 dry mill ethanol plants operating during the 2008 calendar year (plus plants starting up in the winter of 2008/2009) (5).

Resources by eXtension, Bioenergy & Sustainability, BIOEN3 CC BY-NC-SA 2.5
www.extension.org/pages/63365/bioenergy-curriculum

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