Test determines fuel yield of corn

Plants will be able to know how much ethanol they’ll get per load.

Ethanol producers will be able to tell how much alcohol they can get from each farmer’s load of corn using technology developed by Pioneer Hi-Bred International and a maker of grain analyzers.

FOSS North America makes an infrared device already used in many ethanol plants to analyze the makeup of the corn. Under an agreement announced Wednesday, Pioneer, a DuPont unit based in Johnston, will provide technology it has developed to test corn kernels to tell how much ethanol they will produce.

Ethanol yields can vary by as much as 7 percent, depending on the variety of corn, said Russ Sanders, marketing director for Pioneer.

Increasing the ethanol output of a 100 million-gallon-a-year plant by 1 percent would increase revenue by $2 million at today’s prices, said Sanders.

Des Moines Register