Last month, Flint Hills Resources announced that it had begun deliveries of its NexPro protein ingredient from its Shell Rock, Iowa, ethanol plant. The company installed Maximized Stillage Co-Products (MSC) technology at the plant earlier this year. This is the second Flint Hills Resources ethanol plant to receive an MSC addition.

“This is an important milestone for our company,” said Garland Krabbenhoft, plant manager at the Flint Hills Resources Shell Rock ethanol plant. “The NexPro protein ingredient we create here from Iowa farmers’ corn will be used in animal food production around the world.”

NexPro is used in a variety of animal feed rations. The product is made by extracting protein from the whole stillage that remains after ethanol is made.

At most ethanol plants, whole stillage is processed into distillers corn oil and distillers grains for animal feed. The MSC technology, licensed to the company by Fluid Quip Technologies, allows the Shell Rock plant to extract and refine this protein. 

“Global protein demand continues to grow, and so does the need for new feed ingredients,” said Mark Murphy, general manager of global protein marketing and trading for Flint Hills Resources. “NexPro, a 50% protein ingredient, provides poultry, aquaculture, pet food, dairy and swine customers a higher-value alternative to their existing feed ingredient options.”

According to the U.N., global demand for food will grow 60% between 2010 and 2050, with meat production growing 70%. NexPro will be sold locally, nationally and internationally, competing against corn gluten meal, soy and corn protein concentrates and fish meal.

“The addition of MSC at Shell Rock is a testament to our employees and to our customers whose corn we’re now able to transform to create even more value,” said Nathan Underwood, commercial manager at the Shell Rock ethanol plant.

Flint Hills Resources is an industry leader in refining, chemicals, biofuels and ingredients, with operations primarily in the Midwest and Texas. Based in Wichita, Kan., the company has nearly 4,000 employees and is a wholly owned subsidiary of Koch Industries Inc.

Flint Hills Resources operates six ethanol plants located in Arthur, Fairbank, Iowa Falls, Menlo and Shell Rock, Iowa, and Fairmont, Neb. The plants have a combined annual capacity of more than 725 million gal. of ethanol, over 1.5 million tons of distillers grains and more than 125,000 tons of the NexPro high-protein ingredient for animal feed.