Syngenta grows Enogen® corn footprint, with total ethanol production capacity now approaching 2 billion gallons

Date:01-09-2017

• Syngenta working with ethanol plants from Arizona to Ohio
• Enogen enables corn growers to serve as enzyme suppliers and helps plants increase efficiency
• Syngenta expects 2017 Enogen premiums to be approximately $32 million

Syngenta today announced that it has reached agreements with ethanol plants, from Arizona to Ohio, with a combined total capacity of nearly 2 billion gallons.

According to Dr. Miloud Araba, head of Enogen® technical services at Syngenta, the robust alpha amylase enzyme found in Enogen corn hybrids helps an ethanol plant dramatically reduce the viscosity of its corn mash and eliminate the need to add a liquid form of the enzyme.

“This breakthrough viscosity reduction can lead to unprecedented levels of solids loading, enabling increased throughput and yield, as well as significant cost savings from reduced energy, water, natural gas and chemical usage in ethanol plants,” Araba said.

Golden Harvest® and NK® Corn growers who plant Enogen corn benefit as well – they can earn up to 40 cents per bushel when contracted Enogen grain is delivered to the ethanol plant.

“This is particularly significant given current commodity prices,” said Marcos Castro, Enogen marketing manager at Syngenta. “We expect the total premiums earned by Enogen growers to be approximately $32 million in 2017, creating real advantages for growers and rural economies.”

Improved ROI potential on ethanol acres

Approximately 40 percent of the U.S. corn crop is used to produce ethanol.¹ Syngenta offers the Ethanol Grower Advantage program to help increase potential for a better return on investment on ethanol acres, help increase grower profitability and help plants produce more ethanol per bushel. “The Ethanol Grower Advantage program incentivizes and rewards agronomic best practices, helping growers to achieve consistently higher yields and earn premiums while delivering higher-quality, locally sourced grain to participating ethanol plants,” Castro added. “Participating growers are eligible to receive up to a 10-cent premium for each bushel of Golden Harvest, NK and/or Enogen corn delivered to a participating ethanol plant. This complements the existing premiums that can be earned by Enogen growers and further demonstrates our commitment to ethanol.”

Growers as enzyme suppliers

Enogen is rapidly gaining popularity because of the value it delivers and the opportunity it provides corn growers to be enzyme suppliers for their participating local ethanol plants. Numerous trials have shown that Enogen hybrids perform equal to or better than other high-performing corn hybrids.²

“The agreements we have in place with a steadily increasing number of plants will enable them to source alpha amylase directly from growers and keep enzyme dollars in those local communities,” said Ron Wulfkuhle, head of Enogen at Syngenta. “This is what truly sets Enogen corn apart from other technologies designed to enhance ethanol production. It adds significant incremental value at the local level for communities that rely on their ethanol plant’s success.”

The future of fuel

Looking ahead, Wulfkuhle added that the combination of Cellerate™ process technology and Enogen corn will help ethanol plants increase efficiency even further. Cellerate converts corn kernel fiber into cellulosic ethanol and can help plants produce more ethanol from the same kernel of corn, increase total yield of distillers corn oil and improve the protein content of feed co-products. Trials at Quad County Corn Processors (QCCP) demonstrated as much as a 26 percent increase in in production when Cellerate process technology and the use of Enogen corn were combined.³

“We believe that not only will Cellerate process technology help make advanced and cellulosic ethanol a reality, but the combination of Cellerate and Enogen could represent the next step forward for ethanol production,” Wulfkuhle said.tent of feed co-products. 

¹ Source: USDA
² Syngenta production data from over 350,000 acres, 2012-2015.
³ Based on third-party verification procedures performed by Christianson & Associates PLLP, a firm of certified public accountants and consultants.