Strengthening the corn based renewable fuel industry is one of NCGA's research
goals. Ethanol production is the third largest market for U.S. corn, grinding
700 million bushels annually and assisting in the economic development of
rural America through thousands of farmer/owners in cooperative ethanol production
facilities. A portion of ethanol related research is focused on enhancing
the value of co-products such as Distillers Dried Grains and Corn Gluten
Feed.
Corn Fiber Utilization
Increased utilization of the undervalued portion of the corn kernel,
fiber, should serve to increase demand for corn through new industrial
applications. The main customer for corn fiber now, is corn gluten
feed sold to the livestock industry, this research opens up many new
avenues of chemical application. For more information on corn to chemicals
check out Polyols and Fermentation of Corn Fiber. More
info...
Fermentation of Corn Fiber
This project is coordinated with the Corn Fiber Utilization project
and combines research efforts with the Corn Refiners Association to
better use all portions of the corn kernel. As 11% of the corn kernel
is represented by fiber, and is largely hemi-cellulose, finding a
way to turn that portion into ethanol through fermentation is highly
beneficial to the corn grower and environmentally friendly. More
info...
DDGS New Market Research Nearly 3.8 million tons of distillers dry grains are currently
created in domestic dry grind ethanol production; farmer owned cooperatives
represent 48% of that production. For every bushel of corn made into
ethanol, 18 pounds of DDGS are created and must maintain value to
contribute to plant profitability. More info...
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