Corn gluten feed

The remaining mixture of starch, gluten, and bran (hull), which is finely ground, is washed through a series of screens to sieve the bran from the starch and gluten. The hull becomes part of corn gluten feed. 

In wet-milling, the corn is first separated into its major components, the germ, oil, fiber, gluten and starch. The starch is then converted into ethanol. This process provides useful by-products such as corn gluten feed and meal. The only other country with a significant production of ethanol, Brazil, makes its fuel from sugar cane. 

Oats, wheat milling by-products, corn gluten feed and other maize starch by-products, maize feed flour, sorghum 0.31... 

Cereal by-products, corn gluten feed, dehydrated sugar beet pulp, dehydrated potato and soybean hulls... 

Com fiber contains several components that, if separated, can be readily upgraded to value-added products using current commercial technology. Over 13,000 tons of corn fiber are produced per day in the U.S. and over 80% of that is exported (i). Corn fiber is an ideal feedstock, because it is abundant and requires no special harvesting or additional transportation costs as it is already in the plant. If the com fiber volume can be reduced by a conversion process, the biorefinery would be able to process additional corn and also potentially increase the ethanol yield from each bushel of corn by up to 0.3 gallons/bushel (2), while exporting less corn gluten feed. 

The most commercially feasible hydrolysis method is the initial hydrolysis at 140°C for 30 minutes. This method hydrolyzes most of the starch and 72% of the hemicellulose. This leaves the cellulose and a portion of the hemicellulose to act as a carrier for the corn steep liquor and stillage to make corn gluten feed. The additional acid hydrolysis step creates a large amount of degradation products, which would be inhibitory to the ethanol fermentation, without giving a greater monosaccharide concentration. The enzyme hydrolysis step is not feasible without enzymes that contain activities specifically for the corn fiber hemicellulose matrix. These types of enzymes are not commercially available, or would be prohibitively expensive, therefore, enzyme hydrolysis of corn fiber is not currently commercially feasible. 

FIGURE 26.3 Com wet mill coproducts. Note CGF = corn gluten feed, CGM = com gluten meal, (1) mass source references [5-12], (2) market source references [13-16]. 

Maisgluten Corn Gluten Meal Maiskeime Corn Germs Maisklebeifiitter Corn Gluten Feed Maisdl Corn Oil... 

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