THE ALCOHOL TEXTBOOK THE ALCOHOL TEXTBOOK

Foreword xi
Recovery and utilization of co-products
As we review our overall process, it is obviously
critical that we maximize utilization of coproducts.
Assuming the feedstock is corn, the
major cost factors are the raw material, energy,
enzymes, processing chemical cost (water
treatment, etc.) and labor. Much of these costs
can be offset with 17 lbs of distillers grains
coming from each bushel of corn; but we must
maximize the return on this essential product.
Distillers grains with solubles (DDGS) are
currently (July 2003) selling for around $80/ton
and corn for $2.20 per bushel. At $0.04 per lb
($80/ton), 17 lbs of DDGS gives us a credit of
$0.68. This is set against the $2.20 bushel of
corn or the $0.03-0.04 for enzymes. If on the
other hand, new or novel products could be
made from distillers grains, (i.e. improved bypass
proteins for cattle, pre-hydrolyzed DDGS
for human foods), the financial impact could be
substantial. The future will see many new
products built around DDGS. This is the subject
of a separate chapter in this volume.
As dry mills shift toward biorefining, instead
of simply grinding, corn, yield of ethanol
becomes only one part of the economic
equation. Perhaps in the future, further
processing of distillers grains will create products
that make spent grains the single most important
raw material from a distillery. After all, they are
rich and valuable protein sources, a commodity
in very short supply across the world.
Education
Perhaps the biggest surprise, as one surveys the
progress that has been made in the last 20 years
is how little progress has been made in the area
of education. Unlike the brewing industry, which
seems to have an abundance of professionals
with PhD and masters degrees, our industry has
very few. Unlike the brewing industry, which
has no less than five brewing schools around
the world, the annual Alltech Alcohol School
remains the only venue for industry-wide
training.
The Alltech Institute of Brewing and Distilling,
established in 2000, set out to address this
shortfall by working in conjunction with the
Heriot-Watt University in Scotland. Perhaps our
industry should use the brewing industry as a
model. Scholarships should be funded and
perhaps a bioscience center concept established.
Bioscience centers bridge the gap between
university and industry by creating an
environment where students are encouraged to
complete higher degrees while doing industryfocused
research.
Conclusions
The alcohol industry, therefore, is alive and well,
and we have been given an opportunity to
achieve something that many of us thought
would have been achieved by the mid-1980s.
We have a superb oxygenate that will help
reduce global warming and at the same time
enable us to add value to our grains. The world
is not short of starch and sugar, the world is short
of protein. The fuel alcohol industry and
beverage alcohol industries therefore are in fact
generators of protein; it only remains for us to
make sure the proteins we generate are the most
advantageous possible to man and beast.
The chapters in this book we hope will help
the reader realize the complexity and at the same
time the simplicity of the process of converting
sugars to ethanol. If we make your search for
information just a little easier, we will have
achieved our objective. If we can encourage
more research, then we will be well-rewarded.