Ace Ethanol to Install D3MAX Technology at Stanley, Wis., Facility

D3MAX LLC, Grand Forks, N.D., USA, and Ace Ethanol LLC, Stanley, Wis., this week announced that Ace Ethanol will be the first ethanol plant to integrate the patented D3MAX technology with its existing corn dry mill. Ace Ethanol has received approval from its board of directors and members to proceed with the design and construction of the corn kernel fiber-to-ethanol plant.

"The team at D3MAX was extremely excited to hear the news that the Ace board and members approved moving forward with the project," said Mark Yancey, CTO at D3MAX. The integrated facility will also employ membrane-based ethanol recovery technology supplied by Whitefox Technologies, London, U.K., resulting in significant energy savings for the integrated facility. Ace has selected Fagen Inc., Granite Falls, Minn., to build the new D3MAX facility. Construction is scheduled to begin this summer, pending final negotiations and signing of the contract with Fagen.

Last year, Ace Ethanol and D3MAX conducted extensive pilot testing of the D3MAX technology. "The D3MAX process was able to meet or exceed our performance goals," said Neal Kemmet, president and GM at Ace Ethanol and Fox River Valley Ethanol, Oshkosh, Wis. "Based on the pilot testing, D3MAX demonstrated the ability to substantially improve our companies’ financial performance by converting corn kernel fiber to cellulosic ethanol. We are excited to have selected the companies who we believe are the best engineering and construction contractors to build the D3MAX plant, and the yeast and enzyme suppliers who give us the best opportunity for success to boost our bottom-line."

Based on the results of pilot testing, Ace and D3MAX selected DSM, Heerlen, the Netherlands, to supply enzymes for the D3MAX process, and Lallemand Biofuels & Distilled Spirits, Duluth, Ga., has been selected to supply the yeast. The existing Ace plant and the new D3MAX process will be fully integrated for maximum energy efficiency and ethanol yield. Selection of the companies who will work together to build the first D3MAX plant marks another major milestone for D3MAX on its path to commercialization.

"We have assembled the best team with the best technologies to build the first commercial-scale D3MAX plant," Yancey noted. "We are employing a fully integrated design at the Ace plant which will make the facility one of the most energy efficient ethanol plants in the U.S. with the highest ethanol yield per bushel. The combined facilities will be so efficient that the energy use of the new integrated facility will be approximately the same as the current Ace ethanol plant. We are very excited to make this announcement and begin the construction of what we believe will be the new benchmark for the industry."

According to Yancey, the D3MAX process is the only corn kernel fiber-to-ethanol process that will not require an independent engineer to validate the cellulosic ethanol production every 500,000 gal. of cellulosic ethanol produced. With the D3MAX process, cellulosic ethanol gallons can be measured directly, avoiding the cost of re-certification required by EPA for in-situ corn kernel fiber processes and processes that mix corn starch or sugar with the cellulosic sugars. Currently, all other corn kernel fiber technologies require costly re-certification every 500,000 gal.

D3MAX is a technology company formed by BBI International to license its patented cellulosic ethanol technology to dry mill ethanol plants in the U.S. and Canada. D3MAX’s cutting edge technology converts corn fiber and residual starch in distillers grains to cellulosic ethanol. This is a 1.5 billion gal. per year market and the company intends to capture a significant portion of the market by licensing its D3MAX technology to existing ethanol plants.

Ace Ethanol is an ethanol production facility built by local investors in Stanley, Wis. Each year the facility takes in more than 17 million bushels of corn, resulting in an output of approximately 50 million gal. of ethanol, 118,000 tons of DDGS, 8,000 tons of distillers corn oil, and 65,000 tons of carbon dioxide. The facility has a storage capacity of two million bushels on site.