SkunK Vents

If I were to have access to Texas sweet crude oil and started to refine it on my own, I suspect I would have many problems. Even though the refinement of crude oil is well documented and the results predictable, and even if I were trained in say - Ethanol Production - I would not only need the proper equipment, but the knowledge of one trained and experienced in that art.   So . . .

No one would dream of refining ethanol - even with all the best equipment - with an entire crew of novices. The cost of building experience would be just too high. 

Yet I have seen many posts (and filings) over the years that basically state corn oil extraction is simple, obvious and unpatentable. I believe it was Westfalia that compared it in one of their early filings to spinning cream off of milk - and by golly one doesn't need a patent for that!

Now it seems that all [or nearly all] of those who first argued against the patentability of corn oil extraction are pursuing their own patents.

My question to the industry is:  "Those companies who said corn oil extraction was unpatentable when the pioneering patents were awarded - were they wrong then?"  Or are they wrong to pursue peripheral patents now?  Do they plan on enforcing any patents rights that might be awarded to them?  Or are they just tinkering?

If it is so simple to extract corn oil for biodiesel, then why are there reports of those who use copies of others operating manuals and those who have reportedly attempted to reverse design other's equipment, still having so much trouble? Are efforts to extract corn oil being done with the best proven equipment and with the help of those who invented the art? Or is it being done with the same trial and error I would expect if I started to refine my own crude oil [or corn oil] in my garage?

I suspect if one still experiences high yield losses that make corn oil unprofitable as a biodiesel feed stock, then one is lacking either the best equipment or the best experienced - or both.

SkunK
 
PS.  Do not get me wrong.  I am NOT bad mouthing tinkering in one's garage!  I do it all the time and it is great fun.  I recently put an eight foot oak bar in my garage office that can manually dispense various forms of low grade Ethyl Alcohol for human consumption.  Much to my surprise and the delight of my guests - it occasionally expands the tinkering thought process.  However, I do not encourage tinkering at work - especially if one works at an ethanol chemical refinery.  Merely tinkering with corn oil extraction can be an expensive process - one in which the stakeholders of the ethanol plant should not have to finance - regardless of how fun the on-the-clock tinker-ers find it.