Producer
Primient (Tate & Lyle / KPS Capital)
U.S. corn wet-miller (former Tate & Lyle Primary Products) — corn syrup, starches, ethanol, and corn steep liquor co-product.
2
Inputs supplied
2
Goods downstream
0
Facilities
0
Stories
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2 inputs Primient (Tate & Lyle / KPS Capital) supplies
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Business segments
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Sweeteners & Syrups
45%Starches & Industrial
30%Ethanol & Co-Products
25%
Intelligence
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Did you know2015
Corn steep liquor (CSL) — the water drained from corn during wet milling and concentrated to ~50% dry matter — is simultaneously Primient's least glamorous co-product (sold as cattle feed supplement and fermentation broth) and a historically decisive pharmaceutical manufacturing ingredient. In 1943, scientists at the USDA Northern Regional Research Laboratory in Peoria, Illinois discovered that replacing the yeast extract used to grow Penicillium mold with corn steep liquor (a cheap by-product of the A.E. Staley corn starch plant next door) increased penicillin yields by over 1000-fold. This discovery, combined with submerged fermentation, enabled the mass production of penicillin that treated Allied wounded in WWII. Modern antibiotic and amino acid fermentation still uses corn steep liquor as the standard nitrogen and growth factor source — the same product that Primient sells as animal feed supplement to cattle operations is the critical fermentation medium for manufacturing lysine (animal feed amino acid), threonine (pharmaceutical amino acid), and numerous industrial enzymes.
National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI) ↗Origin2022
Primient was carved out from Tate & Lyle plc in 2022, when Tate & Lyle sold 67% of its Primary Products Americas business to private equity firm KPS Capital Partners for approximately $1.4B. Tate & Lyle retained 33% and its specialty ingredient business (SPLENDA sucralose, food hydrocolloids, soluble fibers). The split separated two very different businesses that had been bundled under one company: a commodity corn wet milling operation (now Primient) and a specialty ingredient company focused on high-value sweetener alternatives and dietary fibers (retained Tate & Lyle). Tate & Lyle's original corn syrup business dated to its 1988 acquisition of A.E. Staley Manufacturing, itself a historic Decatur, Illinois corn processing company founded in 1898. The 2022 transaction unwound 34 years of integrated ownership, with KPS Capital betting it could run the commodity corn-processing business as a standalone operation.
Tate & Lyle plc ↗