Making the Most Out of Distillers Corn Oil

More than just a byproduct, distillers corn oil (DCO) is one of the most valuable outputs from an ethanol plant. DCO is versatile, with sustainable applications in biofuel and renewable diesel production, as well as contributing to livestock diets.

Yet the average U.S. ethanol plant extracts only about 50–60% of the potential yield from DCO.

That’s the bottom line according to IFF industry data.

It means that a significant amount of recoverable oil — and associated revenue — may still be left behind within the production process.

It also means the renewable fuels industry still has substantial room to improve efficiency, coproduct recovery and overall carbon performance.

Why Distillers Corn Oil Recovery Matters

DCO has become an increasingly valuable coproduct within ethanol production, particularly as renewable diesel and other low-carbon fuel markets continue expanding. At the same time, producers are under pressure to recover more from the same corn, strengthen margins and reduce avoidable process losses across the plant.

Recovering More Value From Every Bushel

Low-carbon fuel markets are reshaping how ethanol producers think about efficiency. Distillers corn oil is no longer viewed simply as a secondary coproduct. It has become a critical source of both plant revenue and carbon-performance improvement.

The plants recovering the most value are increasingly the ones treating distillers corn oil optimization as a broader process challenge rather than a standalone separation problem. It’s a plant-wide optimization challenge shaped by feedstock variability, fermentation performance, separation efficiency and process visibility across the entire operation.

This shift is changing how producers approach corn oil recovery. Rather than relying solely on mechanical adjustments, many plants are adopting more integrated strategies that combine biotechnology, operational plant data and process mapping to identify where valuable oil is being lost and how recovery can be improved.

“Distillers corn oil recovery is a system-level opportunity shaped by interactions across liquefaction, fermentation, substrate composition and separation. By combining advanced biosolutions with process analytics and plant-wide optimization, producers can unlock previously inaccessible oil, improving yield, reducing variability and lowering carbon intensity. At IFF, we focus on quantifying these gains holistically to help customers capture measurable value and strengthen operational performance.”


Pauline Teunissen, PhD, Global Applications Director for Grain Processing, Health & Biosciences

Why Recovery Remains Challenging

Much of the industry’s unrealized DCO yield is not lost through a single failure point. It remains dispersed across interconnected process conditions that are difficult to identify without broader process insight. In many plants, valuable oil is being left behind in wet cake, fiber streams and other parts of the process that operators historically lacked visibility into.

These losses are often interconnected. Changes in fermentation performance can affect downstream separation efficiency, while variability in feedstock or process conditions may influence oil release and recovery throughout the plant.

There is no one-size-fits-all solution. “Every ethanol plant has unique requirements for maximizing value,” says Teunissen. Many plants have historically focused on centrifuge settings and mechanical separation improvements. While equipment remains important, producers increasingly recognize that mechanical approaches alone cannot fully address the complexity of modern corn oil recovery systems.

Instead, more facilities are taking a plant-wide view of distillers corn oil optimization, using operational data and process mapping to better understand where oil is gained, trapped or lost across production.

Improving Distillers Corn Oil Yield

Biotechnology is changing how ethanol producers approach DCO recovery because much of the remaining oil is physically trapped within fiber and protein structures that conventional separation alone may not fully release.

But it doesn’t have to be that way.

Advanced enzyme technologies act as catalysts that help break down these structures, allowing more oil to become available during downstream recovery. In plant trials, IFF has found that OPTIMASH® BOOST combined with OPTIMASH® AX increased corn oil yield by as much as 23%, lifting yield from 0.95 lb/bu to 1.17 lb/bu.
When combined with process visibility and production insight, these technologies can help producers improve oil yield while supporting more stable plant performance overall.

Many ethanol producers are now moving beyond isolated process adjustments toward more integrated optimization strategies that combine:

• Enzyme innovation
• Separation technologies
• Plant-specific process mapping

We work with ethanol producers to conduct corn oil mapping across facilities to identify where oil losses occur and where targeted process improvements may improve recovery.

Combined with next-generation cellulases like OPTIMASH® BOOST, these insights can help producers maximize oil recovery, improve separation performance and reduce operational variability.

Sustainability and Resource Efficiency in Ethanol Production

In modern ethanol production, sustainability increasingly depends on how efficiently plants use the resources already entering the system. Improving distillers corn oil recovery is not simply about increasing output. It is also about extracting more value from existing feedstocks while reducing avoidable process loss.

Fuel ethanol plants are already designed around strong coproduct utilization systems, with materials typically recycled back into the process or directed into additional value streams rather than discarded.

For producers already focused on maximizing coproduct value, recovering more usable oil from existing feedstocks is a natural extension of the industry’s broader efficiency goals.

Efficient recovery can help producers improve resource utilization, reduce avoidable waste and lower energy intensity per unit of output while strengthening both plant economics and carbon performance.

These improvements are becoming more important as producers compete in low-carbon fuel markets where carbon intensity increasingly influences profitability and market access.

At the same time, outcomes remain highly plant-specific. The strongest results typically come from integrated optimization strategies tailored to individual operating conditions rather than one-size-fits-all solutions.

Creating More Value From Ethanol Coproducts

Modern ethanol production depends on maximizing value across the entire plant rather than focusing exclusively on ethanol yield. Distillers corn oil recovery has become an important part of that strategy because improved coproduct performance means higher yield and improved plant economics.

Improving recovery can increase yield, reduce oil loss to wet cake and support more stable plant operations with lower feedstock variability from batch to batch.

Operational visibility is becoming a strategic part of this process. Understanding where oil losses occur allows producers to make more targeted operational adjustments and identify inefficiencies that may otherwise remain hidden within normal plant variability.

As low-carbon fuel markets continue evolving, producers are looking for ways to improve yield, reduce waste and strengthen operational resilience simultaneously.

More efficient DCO recovery is becoming an essential part of that effort because it sits at the intersection of resource efficiency, sustainability and plant profitability.

The Future of Distillers Corn Oil Recovery

The next phase of DCO optimization will likely rely on increasingly integrated production systems that combine biotechnology, process analysis and system-level understanding.

Rather than relying on isolated mechanical adjustments, producers are moving toward more data-driven strategies capable of identifying inefficiencies across the entire operation in real time. Advanced enzyme technologies will continue evolving alongside improved monitoring systems, separation technologies and operational controls.

No two ethanol plants operate exactly alike, which is why plant-specific optimization remains critical. The most effective recovery strategies are built around understanding where value is lost throughout the process and applying targeted solutions across the system as a whole.

The industry still has substantial opportunity to recover more value from existing feedstocks while improving yield consistency and carbon performance.

If the average ethanol plant is recovering only about half of its potential distillers corn oil yield, then one of the renewable fuels industry’s greatest opportunities may already exist within current operations.

Capturing more of that unrealized oil can help producers strengthen plant economics while improving the overall efficiency and carbon performance of renewable fuel production, helping unlock more of the value already contained within every bushel of corn.

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