Starch refinery products

Liquid sucrose and Hquid invert, generally made by redissolving white sugar and inverting with invertase enzyme, are refinery products in Europe and outside the United States. In the United States they have been almost completely replaced by cheaper com symps made by enzymatic hydrolysis of starch and isomerization of glucose. 

Starch and its derivatives can be produced from several raw materials including corn, wheat, pea, potato, and tapioca and, in general, its production follows local raw material availability. In 2006 European (EU-25) production of starches, modified starches and refinery products was approximately 8.6 Mio tons. The main consumer, accounting for 4.5 Mio tons, was the food industry, followed by the paper and board sector with 2.4 Mio tons, the pharmaceutical and chemical sector with 1.2 Mio tons and the industrial binders sector with 0.6 Mio tons (Figure 9.2.1). 

The botanical source of the primary starch products, from which also refinery products are derived, has been roughly as follows corn starch 4.0 Mio tons, wheat starch 2.9 Mio tons, potato starch 1.8 Mio tons. ... 

The biorefinery concept that has emerged is analogous to today s petroleum refineries. However, many current endeavors focus on single technologies and feedstock such as starch or vegetable oils that could compete with food or feed. We need to create flexible, zero-waste biorefineries that can accept a variety of low-value local feedstock. Biorefineries will then be able to compete with existing industries (Clark et al., 2012). Further down the value chain the development of green chemistry fills the gap between the sustainable resource and the product (Poliakoff and License, 2007). 

For PLA production, cassava bagasse and whole wheat produce equivalent sugars and lactic acid as corn starch. Cellulose produces less sugars and lactic acid than corn starch. In a PLA bio-refinery system, agricultural residues can be used to produce PLA with economic viability and reduced GHG emissions. 

For processing of starch, sugar, and oilseed crops, a primary need is to develop additional industrial products from these raw materials. This is because a processing infrastructure, or at least the beginnings of one, already exists or could be developed for each of these raw materials. Therefore the capital risk of a totally new plant is not required. Corn wet and dry mills, sugar refineries for cane and beet sugar, and oilseed crushing mills already exist and industrial products are already produced from these raw materials. 

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