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Fiber
Utilization Meeting Highlights Importance of Checkoff Funded Research
(10-2-01)
The importance of
the funds provided by corn checkoffs from 19 grower states cannot be
understated. Those funds are used for several things, all of which are
directed back at the grower to make their work more profitable. One
of the higher-visibility uses for checkoff monies is research.
National Corn Growers
Association (NCGA) Director of Business Development Bob Sedlacek attended
a meeting last week with ProForma Systems in Denver, Colo, where he
was a part of this checkoff-funded research. The purpose of the meeting
was to review and revise the engineering economics report for the fiber
utilization project, which uses corn fiber from the corn wet-milling
process as a feedstock to produce ethanol, polyols and nutraceuticals.
The project is also funded in part by checkoff dollars...dollars used
to open new markets for the nation's corn growers.
"Many different
research tasks are being carried out at Battelle Memorial Institute's
Pacific Northwest Laboratories and ADM simultaneously," Sedlacek
said. "As each research experiment is concluded, the new information
is incorporated into the process design and the impact on the projected
profitability of the process is determined."
Fiber utilization
is one of the many research projects NCGA is working on to open new
markets to corn growers for their product. The research, funded in part
by the checkoffs of 19 grower states, increases the utilization of the
undervalued corn fiber and can help reduce reliance on non-renewable
fossil fuels.
"By separating
the fiber into its components," Sedlacek said, "more sugar
is available for fermentation into alcohols or glycols. These alcohols
and glycols can then be used for items such as cosmetics and the fermentation
extract can be further used to form the basis of high-value pharmaceuticals
and nutraceuticals."
For more information
on fiber utilization and other research, visit the NCGA website http://www.ncga.com/research/main/index.html.
Last
reviewed October 2, 2001
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