Adding value to co-productsKeith Waldron.

Topics for consideration

• Deriving higher quality animal feed from 1G ddgs

• Consideration of potential for human consumption

• Possible routes to valorisation of 2G ddgs.

Topics for consideration

• Deriving higher quality animal feed from 1G ddgs

• Consideration of potential for human consumption

• Possible routes to valorisation of 2G ddgs.

Generalised Production of DDGS

Milling Mashing LiquefactionSaccharifica

tionFermentation

ETHANOLDehydra

tionRectifica

tion

Distillation(steam

injection)

DDGS

Evaporator Thin stillage

DDGWet

distillersgrain

Cereal grains

Decanter

en

zymes

en

zyme

s

yeast

syrup

Variation in DDGS

• Range of producers• Beverage• Fuel ethanol

• Range of grains• Wheat – bran and protein• Barley – glumes, bran and

protein• Maize – bran and protein• Rye - ?

Current use as quality feed

• Traditional use as animal feed• Beef cattle

• Dairy cattle

• Poultry

• Swine

• Fish

• Sheep

• Horses

• Dogs

• Quality Criteria include• Nutrient content:

• Crude protein• Amino acids (lysine

supplementation)• Minerals including phosphorus• Vitamins including water-soluble,

fat soluble (corn), • Biologically active substances e.g.

nucleotides, mannans, glucans, inositol, nucleic acids relevant to immune responses and health

• Metabolisable energy content

• Safety/toxicology (mycotoxins)

• Included in dietary formulationsCONSISTENCY

Deriving higher quality animal feed from 1G ddgs

• Potential to increase protein concentration through fractionation• Importance in e.g. fish feed formulations• Market value of high protein concentrates is much higher –

possibly up to $1000 per tonne?

• Approaches currently being explored• Dry sieving (e.g. Lupitsky et al 2015)• Wet sieving (e.g. Li et al, 2014)• Solubilisation and precipitation (e.g. Chatzifragkou et al

2016).

• Future opportunities• Modification of cereal seed composition through breeding

and biotechnology• Amino acids• Ease of fractionation• Resistance to pests and diseases, reducing levels of mycotoxins etc.

The way forward

• Feed development: Close engagement with animal feed companies relevant to different feed sectors• Ruminants• Non ruminants• Poultry• Aquatic

• Focused research programmes:

in collaboration with• Biotechnology companies• Universities and institutes• National / international

Other opportunities for exploiting

ddgs

• Industrial materials• composites

• Bioenergy• AD

• Ethanol (n.b. fractionation of fibre)

• Lipids for biodiesel

Topics for consideration

• Deriving higher quality animal feed from 1G ddgs

• Consideration of potential for human consumption

• Possible routes to valorisation of 2G ddgs.

Drivers and opportunities for using ddgsfor human food production

Drivers:• Global requirements for more protein• Environmental load from food production• Food v.s Fuel conflict

Opportunities:• Corn DDGS is “gluten free”

• High quality source of protein, no animal fats, low carbohydrate content, high in fibre

• Potentially good for health:

• Diabetes, glycemic index, satiety,

• obesity, colonic health,

• presence of benefical phytosterols.

Challenges to be met

• Legislative: • Compliance with national and international

regulations e.g. FDA (US), FSA (UK) etc.• Safety (mycotoxins, chemicals from process,

allergenicity, etc etc.)

• Novel Foods legislation - in the Eurozone

• Consumer acceptability• Incorporation of a “waste” or “Co-Product” stream!

• Organoleptic quality• Trials with food-grade DDGS from beverage industries – up to 15%

incorporation

• Colouration – darkens product e.g. bread, makes firmer, reduces gluten elasticity; courser and grainier product; extruded snacks and cookies darker also

• Off flavours – from fermentation process and thermal treatments

• Variation in quality due to source of grain etc.

Challenges in meeting the challenges

• Technology• To modulate the biorefining process in order to:

• Control food quality characteristics through process modulation and design and post refinery processing

• Ensure compliance with food regulations

• To develop new food processing approaches and products• In depth evaluation of protein and fibre chemistry and properties,

behaviour as food ingredients, digestibilility and nutrition etc.

• Economic• Cost-benefit analysis of improving the bioethanol process in

order to enhance the food production

• Business models – food processing rather than biorefining!

• Environment• LCA (coupled with LCC)

Generalised Production of DDGS

Milling Mashing LiquefactionSaccharifica

tionFermentation

ETHANOLDehydra

tionRectifica

tion

Distillation(steam

injection)

DDGS

Evaporator Thin stillage

DDGWet

distillersgrain

Cereal grains

Decanter

en

zymes

en

zyme

s

yeast

syrup

GRAIN QUALITYHeavy metal contentPesticidesMycotoxinsDioxinOthersGM traits

Requirement for food-grade processing additives e.g. • Enzymes• Yeasts and yeast propagation media• fermentation additives e.g. urea, ammonia• pH adjusters – acid/alkali etc.

Requirement for food-grade processing aids for example:• anti-foaming agents• antimicrobial agents• Antibiotics• Boiler and distillation antiscaling chemicals etc.

Requirement to address processing use of:• Cleaning solutions• Antifoulers (used in evaporators)• Recycled process water• Salts

DDGS QUALITYConcentration of contaminants from the grain and processing into the DDGS

The Way Forward

Ansoff’s Matrix (circa 1957)

Market Penetration Product Development

Market Development Diversification

Existing Products New Products

Existing Markets

NewMarkets

LOW RISK

MEDIUM RISK

MEDIUM RISK

HIGH RISK

CURRENT DDGS AS A (CHEAP) ANIMAL FEED COMPONENT

IMPROVED DDGS FRACTIONS FOR HIGHER VALUE ANIMAL FEEDS

e.g. DDGS FIBRE FRACTIONS FOR FUEL, ENERGY, MATERIALS ETC

e.g. DDGS FRACTIONS FOR HUMAN FOOD INGREDIENT MARKETS

Substantial research and development – WITH LOW RISK!

• Could be national, but probably needs a pan-European approach, or even global

• Probably appropriate for an EU-style project under the Horizon 2020 programme and beyond.• Biorefining meets food processing……..

• Currently developing discussions• Contact me on keith.waldron@ifr.ac.uk

The Way Forward

Topics for consideration

• Deriving higher quality animal feed from 1G ddgs

• Consideration of potential for human consumption

• Possible routes to valorisation of 2G ddgs.

biomass

distillation

bioalcohol

Simplified scheme for ethanol production from biomass

PretreatmentAvailable cellulose

hydrolysis sugars

fermentation alcohol

Lignin-rich

residue

CRITERIA FIRST GENERATION SECOND GENERATON

Substrate Grain Lignocellulose

Carbohydrates Starch (and protein) Cellulose (+ pentoses & lignin)

Process Milling, gelatinise, saccharify(thermal amylases) and ferment - easy

Pretreatment (energy), special enzymes (expensive, binding),

Rheology Pumpable Fibrous –difficult to concentrate

Enzyme cost Cheap expensive

Ethanol concentration 12-15% (v/v) 5-7% (v/v) at best. Research = 1-4% (v/v)

Fermentation characteristics

Simple - brewing Problems with fermentation inhibitors, pentose sugars etc

Co-products DDGS, oil etc – adds considerable value, used in well established supply chains.

Hmmm! You can burn the lignin! (after drying!)

Some differences between first and second generation ethanol production

• High energy density cereals

• readily processed using moderate energy and cheap thermally stable enzymes and

• fermented to produce high ethanol concentrations and

• valuable co-product.

• Low energy density material requiring

• energy intensive pretreatments that

• produce fermentation inhibitors,

• requires expensive enzymes that are not thermally tolerant and bind to substrate,

• low substrate concentrations limit resulting ethanol concentrations,

• co-products low in value.• Only benefit – cheap

substrate price

Lignin exploitation (e.g. Borregaard)

Extraction of Vanillin

Pharmaceuticals

Food

Perfumes

Lignin – derived performance chemicals

Concrete additives

Animal feed

Agrochemicals

Oil field chemicals

Soil conditioning

Lignin recovery

(a) Removal of fibre components through hydrolysis

(b) Pulping processes

e.g. Kraft

Soda

Sulfite

Solvent

Horticultural Trials

The way forward

• Idea generation • research programmes in Universities and institutes

• collaboration with the emerging 2G Biorefinery industries and chemical and manufacturing industries.

• PhD funding programmes etc.

• Downstream R&D and translational activities

Conclusions

• Deriving higher quality animal feed from 1G ddgs• Enrich protein and fibre streams respectively• Engage with animal feed companies for joint R&D

• Consideration of potential for human consumption• Develop a new food ingredient and product processing arena • Engage with food researchers, food industries, consumer etc

to meet quality and legislative challenges• Large EU project would be a good start

• Possible routes to valorisation of 2G ddgs.• Fundamental research required to underpin innovative

industrial activities