Poet Plans to compete in Corn Oil Extraction

[POET does NOT have a patent for COES.  They have a patent application published March 11, 2010.  More on their "application" starts and stops and tribulations later.]

Knowing that the "big three" in ethanol production are not going to sit on the sidelines and miss all the benefits of COES, it was just a question of whether ADM, Poet and Valero would be a GreenShift customer or competitor. It appears that question for POET  has been answered in the FALL 2010 internal magazine "Vital".  They claim a ". . . new patent-pending corn oil separation process to manufacture Voilá!™ corn oil. . ."   With the new timeline released in the earlier blog, it will be interesting if POET becomes a litigant in the current proceedings.  It appears GreenShift will decide that by the 24th of November.

See POET Newsletter Here

See on Poet website Here

See in American Fuels Blog


Since the Corn Oil extraction process has already been patented by GreenShift, it appears that Poet is counting on inventing a "unique" process using less heat and producing less free fatty acids.  Flottweg already appears to have had problems getting around the GreenShift patents and patents pending. Flottweg story Here and Here and Here.

It appears that POET's patent pending for Corn Oil Extraction is Right HERE

SkunK found it interesting that they talk below of how they supposedly improved over GreenShift patent applications - but not patents?  I provided the links below to the applications and also inserted the links to the issued patents.

[0003]Various processes for recovering oil from a fermentation product are currently known in the art. Such processes, however, can be expensive, inefficient or even dangerous. For example, some process, such as that set forth in WO 2008/039859, utilize a solvent extraction technique that, in turn, requires the use of volatile organic compounds such as hexane. Other processes, such as that set forth in U.S. Application Publication No. 2007/0238891 = [GreenShift Patent 7,68,729], utilize high amounts of heat. Still other conventional processes, such as that set forth in U.S. Application Publication No. 2006/0041152 [GreenShift Patent 7,601,858] and 2006/0041153 [GreenShift Notice of allowance], simply apply a centrifugal force to a fermented product in an attempt to separate an oil product.  

{SkunK note:  The patent office has to be asking Poet: "Do you really think we issued two patents to '. . , simply apply a centrifugal force to a fermented product in an attempt to separate an oil product' ?????  You might want to review those patents again."}

[0004]Conventional processes for recovering oil from a fermentation product can sacrifice oil quality such that the oil contains a high level of free fatty acids. The presence of a high level of free fatty acids can hamper the production of end products such as, for example, the yield and quality of any bio-diesel eventually produced with the oil as a feedstock. Processes for producing ethanol, such as the process set forth in WO 2004/081193, produce fermentation byproducts which contain increased levels of oils while maintaining a low level of free fatty acids. However, upon application of a centrifugal force to the fermented product, an emulsion can form which effectively locks the valuable oil within the emulsion. Thus, a problem exists in that both conventional and novel processes, alike, cannot effectively, efficiently or safely separate or "break" quality oil from a fermented product.




SkunK