Big River Resources Nears Completion of Corn Protein Extraction Unit in Galva, Illinois

Researched by Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas)--Cooperative-owned Big River Resources LLC (West Burlington, Iowa) and partner Prairie Gold Incorporated (Bloomington, Illinois) are nearing completion of a new corn-extraction unit for a fuel ethanol plant in Galva, Illinois.

The zein-extraction unit, using a technology developed by Prairie Gold, will produce corn protein used in a variety of Food Industry products made in the U.S. and some overseas markets.

The estimated $12 million extraction unit is located within the existing 110 million-gallon-per-year ethanol plant. The unit removes protein from corn before the ethanol distillation process. The unit is expected to produce 600,000 pounds of zein protein per year. The product is marketed and licensed under the Prairie Gold product Amazein.

Construction of the unit started about a year ago, and Big River Resources expects the unit to be fully operational by August.

Big River is considering the addition of zein-extraction technology to the other cooperative plants, which are located in West Burlington, Iowa (105 million gallons per year); Boyceville, Wisconsin (57 million gallons per year); and Dyersville, Iowa (100 million gallons per year).

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