The common ingredients you use to bake cookies, cakes and pastries are being used in the production of ethanol. Ethanol is a bioalcohol and is also called ethyl alcohol, grain alcohol and drinking alcohol. It is a volatile, flammable, colorless liquid and it’s most common use is in the creation of alcohol for human consumption. It is in wine, beer, whiskeys, cognacs and any other form of alcoholic beverages. We all know it simply as alcohol.

Ethanol is produced from corn and other feedstock crops by dry and wet-milling. Dry milling facilities are more common than wet milling. It accounts for more than 80% of all ethanol produced. Dry milling plants are smaller and use less energy that wet-milling. This is the main reason why it is the preferred method in the ethanol production industry. Believe it or not, the number of ethanol plants has more than doubled since 2000.

Dry milling ethanol plants are dedicated to the production of ethanol. The producers of co-products consume a third or more of the total process energy. They are also important revenue streams for ethanol producers. Ethanol is a key part of the U.S. initiative to reduce fossil-fuel emissions and in the development of alternative fuel sources.

The process of dry milling corn involves grinding corn into course flour. Water and enzymes are then added and it is cooked. Next, yeast is added and the brood is fermented. The result, called “mash”, is then put in a distiller to remove water that results in 100% alcohol. You may know it as grain alcohol or even moonshine. The alcohol is then “denatured”, a process that makes in unfit for human consumption. It is then sent off to an ethanol storage tank.

The byproduct of this process is then recombined and sold as high-protein animal feed. If the byproduct is dried out completely, it is called Dried Distillers Grain with Solubles (DDGS). One very interesting fact is that the CO2 that is emitted during the fermentation process is captured, stored and sold to the beverage industry for carbonating sodas. It is also used to produce dry ice.

In addition to corn, feedstock such as soybeans and sugar beets are also used as sources for ethanol based alternative fuel sources. Ethanol is a major part in efforts by many countries to reduce the dependency on foreign fuels and reduce carbon emissions.

Ethanol, combined with other alternative fuel technologies such as methanol production, hydrogen and even electricity, may help “bridge” the gap from fossil fuels to the ultimate alternative fuel source not yet discovered.

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Alternative Fuels