Corny solution boosts value

The US produces well over 30billion litres of corn per year, of which almost 5billion litres are destined for industrial wet milling. The main product of this is starch, used as an industrial feedstock and to make corn syrups. But the process also produces low-value components, such as corn gluten feed - comprising more than a quarter of the feed, but currently only used as animal feed.

A project led by the US National Corn Growers Association and Archer Daniels Midland is now developing a process to convert corn fibre, which comprises around 80 per cent of the corn gluten, into useful industrial products.

The researchers on the project first used nuclear magnetic resonance to identify the component chemicals of the fibre, then devised a combination of separation techniques to extract five- and six-carbon sugars from the fibre, including glucose, xylose and arabinose.

These can in turn be converted to ethanol, to be used as a fuel and as a chemical feedstock, and to the basic chemicals propylene glycol and ethylene glycol.

The process also recovers the low volumes of oils present in the gluten, which can be used in foods and cosmetics.