Monsanto, Perten team up for ethanol process tools

St. Louis-based Monsanto (NYSE: MON) and Springfield, Ill.'s Perten Instruments announced today that they would work together to develop advanced process analytical tools for ethanol plants.

The tools will be designed to help facilities increase efficiency in their ethanol production process.

"Monsanto is a company that is focused on helping our customers increase the productivity of their farming operation," said Pradip Das, Monsanto Crop Analytics lead. "Partnering with a company like Perten will help us better measure and utilize that productivity in new and exciting ways."

"This collaboration offers an opportunity to help improve the efficiency of the ethanol production process through advanced analytics, which also benefits farmers as they work to meet growing demand for food, feed, and fuel," said Das.

The companies said one area of focus will be on optimizing ethanol yields based on incoming feedstock quality, such as Processor Preferred High Fermentable Corn hybrids. They also plan to explore technologies to determine and improve the quality of ethanol co-products such as dry distillers grains.

"The core competencies present in Monsanto Company are extremely synergistic with our vision of future development of rapid analysis solutions for the agricultural industry," said Sven Holmlund, CEO of Perten Instruments.

"Having input from a company with industry experience and expertise such as Monsanto gives us a unique ability to tailor future developments of near infrared and other analytical equipment to meet the needs of this customer base."

The team said they will work to develop rapid analysis methods using Perten's near infrared technology for process monitoring at over a dozen processing points in each ethanol production facility.

Perten's quality control and process monitoring tools also include Diode Array based technology, high frequency moisture analyzers, Rapid Visco Analyzers, laboratory mills, and single kernel analyzers.

Monsanto produces genetically altered seeds that tolerate its flagship chemical product, Roundup, and resist bugs. Roundup is the world's No. 1 herbicide.