Fortiva® outpaces all other liquefaction technologies, resulting in starch conversion levels never before seen in the ethanol industry; Novozymes also reveals Innova® Force – the most advanced and flexible yeast, available in a cream or dry format.
Fortiva® outpaces all other liquefaction technologies, resulting in starch conversion levels never before seen in the ethanol industry; Novozymes also reveals Innova® Force – the most advanced and flexible yeast, available in a cream or dry format.
Novozymes, the leading technology provider to the biofuel industries, today announces two major launches during the Fuel Ethanol Workshop & Expo (FEW) to continue supporting the growth of the renewable fuel industry.
Fortiva is a new alpha-amylase technology that helps customers avoid having to choose between maximizing enzyme performance and operational efficiency. In yeast, Force continues to deliver on the promise to quickly bring innovative, robust, and reliable biological solutions to the market from the Innova yeast platform established last year.
“Fortiva and Innova Force both provide ethanol producers with the technology needed to push for greater profits in changing market conditions – and they underline Novozymes’ continued commitment to support the ethanol industry with innovation that makes a real, meaningful difference for the producer,” says Brian Brazeau, Vice President, Biofuels Commercial North America at Novozymes. “Novozymes has always spearheaded biological innovation for the ethanol industry; Fortiva and Force continue that journey with more to come as we work to unlock the full potential of biology.”
Fortiva: The highest starch solubilization in the industry by converting the most starch to useable sugars
High enzyme performance means maximizing the potential return on investment. Corn input costs are the highest variable cost for fuel ethanol producers and passing available starch from this input means lost opportunity and profit. Fortiva maximizes the conversion of corn inputs into profit in a very tight margin environment – creating on average 1% higher ethanol yield and 20% lower residual starch.
“This latest technology from Novozymes outpaces all other liquefaction technologies for input conversion and process efficiency,” says Brian Brazeau. “Bringing meaningful innovation to the market is something very important to our customers and to Novozymes. Recent transformational innovations, such as our patented thermostable protease, have returned significant value to ethanol producers and while thermostable protease was transformational, Fortiva is the next leap in amylase technology – beyond anything we have previously seen or developed in this space.”
A force to be reckoned with: Delivering the greatest tolerance of high ethanol concentrations and lowest residual starch
In 2018, Novozymes established an ambitious yeast platform, Innova. During its first year, Novozymes launched two new solutions from it – Drive and Lift – delivering industry-changing robustness to fermentation, aligned with customer needs for yeast, tolerant to fuel ethanol production demands – while eliminating bottlenecks and limitations created by all other yeasts.
Innova Force targets ethanol plants seeking flexibility to achieve operational targets without sacrificing robust performance. It allows producers to achieve throughput and yield targets without losing ethanol yield to common stressors, such as high temperature and organic acids. Force gives producers the flexibility to push for yield without compromise, and to choose the format that best fits their operation, dry or cream.
“The Innova platform, with the launch of Drive, Lift, and now Force, has been adopted as the most robust yeast in the marketplace. Novozymes’ yeast solutions enable ethanol producers to run their plants the way they want to – and not be boxed in by a one-size-fits-all product,” Brazeau comments. “Within 1.5 years of launching our first yeast, over one quarter of North American ethanol plants now use Novozymes’ yeast, clearly signaling the need for the performance, flexibility, and reliability Innova solutions deliver.”
Biofuels – blazing a new path for renewable, more sustainable energy
Since inception, the ethanol industry has continually increased efficiency, producing more gallons of renewable ethanol from fewer inputs, requiring less land and other inputs to create that energy.
“By leveraging the biological synergies and sustainability of our enzymes, yeast, and technical service platforms, Novozymes has reset performance expectations for ethanol production,” says Brian Brazeau. “The launches of the Innova Force fermentation solution and Fortiva, our newest liquefaction solution, together deliver the most holistic, sustainable, and advanced approach to ethanol production, all based on customer needs and our commitment to a better tomorrow using transformational biology.”
Fortiva - facts
- Fortiva is added into liquefaction the same as traditional alpha amylase technologies, but once introduced, it solubilizes more difficult starch than all other amylases on the market
- It does this through both the efficient operational use of temperature, as well as the enzyme itself, leading to the highest conversion of starch to dextrins in the market and creating the highest returns on investment. Novozymes sees this proven time and again through an average 20% reduction in ethanol plants’ residual starch. And, with its broad temperature performance range, customers who operate at traditional temperatures, can also realize improvements not seen with other technologies
- Fortiva advances plant efficiency. The fuel ethanol industry initially operated at high liquefaction temperatures (195F/91C) known to better solubilize starch to dextrins, but during this time, enzyme efficiency was limited and required excessive use of chemicals to enable the high operational temperature. Novozymes advancements in enzyme technology (Liquozyme SC) allowed for the removal of unnecessary chemicals (lime) required but required an operational change to more typical operating liquefaction temperatures seen in the fuel ethanol industry today (185F/85C)
- Fortiva again allows the ethanol industry to engage very efficient, high temperature liquefactions (195F/91C) while also bringing to market the most advanced alpha amylase to work in this ideal environment, solubilizing more starch without the need for additional chemicals, yielding the highest ethanol production in the market (+1% ethanol yield).
Innova Force - facts
- Leading the industry to maximize fermentation kinetics, Innova Force expresses multiple starch-degrading enzymes for tailored substrate activity, ensuring solubilization and conversion for the lowest residual starch and most optimal fermentation kinetics. Paired with novel glucoamylases, the result is the lowest stress and high performing yeast kinetics and fermentations for exceptional efficiency.
- Force is proven to handle tough challenges: Exceptional robustness to high ethanol concentrations, high dry solids – up to 38%, temperature excursions up to 104°F, and lactic acid excursions up to 0.6%. Force expresses multiple enzymes to maximize substrate and starch conversion, and is available in two formats, cream and dry – making it the most advanced dry yeast on the market.
- Force eliminates the need for yeast food (100%) required by other yeasts, a $300,000 savings (100+MGY plants). Based on plant trials to date, there is potential for significant urea reduction, up to 75% depending on individual plant conditions. For every 500lbs of urea reduced, plants can save approximately $130,000 (100+MGY plant). Innova Force eliminates these hidden costs with its flexibility, robustness, and opportunity to run a plant as needed (high throughput or yield):
- $500,000 savings in nutrients (urea reduction, and 100% elimination of yeast nutrients)
- $280,000 cost reduction related to poor performing fermentations caused by lack of robustness
- <33% DS – plants using advanced yeasts struggle running high dry solids.
