CUTC Session to Highlight New Value-added Products (4-11-06)

New value-added products from corn will be discussed in detail at Dr. Dennis Miller’s “Value Added: New Products from Corn” session at the Corn Utilization & Technology Conference (CUTC), sponsored by the National Corn Growers Association (NCGA). CUTC is the premier technology conference on corn products and will be held in Dallas, June 5-7.

“It will be a good representation of the new products coming from corn,” said Miller, a professor in Michigan State University’s Department of Chemical Engineering. “CUTC has had new product sessions before, but what we’re trying to do is monitor the amount of value-added products. Each time we do a session like this, we see production further along. There is continued growth of value-added products from corn.”

The session will feature five speakers who are researching corn’s uses in various chemicals. The session’s speakers and topics are:

• Doug Cameron, Cargill Bio TDC, “3-HP as a New Platform”
• Michael Jaffee, New Jersey Institute of Technology, “Isosorbide as a Biorenewable Monomer”
• S.T. Yang, The Ohio State University, “Butanol Production”
• Kris Berglund, Diversified Natural Products Inc., “Commercial Scale Succinic Acid Production from Corn”
• Dennis Miller, Michigan State University, “Organic Acid Esters”

“We tried to choose topics that will have an impact in the near term,” Miller said. “All the chemicals that will be presented are relatively close to commercial viability. All of these products are near-future, large scale, use a lot of corn and are commodity-type chemicals. They’re well along in development.”

Dr. Richard Glass, NCGA vice president of research and business development, said the value-added products session gives growers, scientists and the public the opportunity to see how corn will play a role in our world.

“Each day, researchers are becoming more successful in finding alternative chemicals from corn,” said Glass. “This session highlights five chemicals produced from corn that are replacements for their petroleum-based counterparts.”

The theme of this year’s CUTC is “Corn: Nature’s Sustainable Resource.” For more information on CUTC, visit www.corntechconf.org. To receive the preferred CUTC Conference hotel room rate, please register no later than April 30. Hotel reservations need to be made directly with the hotel, 888-421-1442 or 214-651-1234; or online at http://www.hyattregencydallas.com. To receive the discount, mention CUTC or NCGA.