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Hydrolysis and Fermentation of Pericarp and Endosperm Fibers Recovered from Enzymatic Corn Dry-Grind Process

¹U.S. Department of Agriculture, National Center of Agricultural Utilization Research, Agricultural Research Service, 1815 N. University Street, Peoria, IL 61604. Names are necessary to report factually on available data; however, the USDA neither guarantees nor warrants the standard of the product, and the use of the name by the USDA implies no approval of the product to the exclusion of others that may also be suitable. ²U.S. Department of Agriculture, Eastern Regional Research Center, Agricultural Research Service, 600 E. Mermaid Lane, Wyndmoor, PA 19038. ³Department of Agricultural and Biological Engineering, University of Illinois, Urbana, IL 61801. ⁴Corresponding author. Phone: 217-333-9510. Fax: 217-244-0323. E-mail: vsingh@uiuc.edu

A modified dry-grind corn process has been developed that allows recovery of both pericarp and endosperm fibers as coproducts at the front end of the process before fermentation. The modified process is called enzymatic milling (E-Mill) dry-grind process. In a conventional dry-grind corn process, only the starch component of the corn kernel is converted into ethanol. Additional ethanol can be produced from corn if the fiber component can also be converted into ethanol. In this study, pericarp and endosperm fibers recovered in the E-Mill dry-grind process were evaluated as a potential ethanol feedstock. Both fractions were tested for fermentability and potential ethanol yield. Total ethanol yield recovered from corn by fermenting starch, pericarp, and endosperm fibers was also determined. Results show that endosperm fiber produced 20.5% more ethanol than pericarp fiber on a g/100 g of fiber basis. Total ethanol yield obtained by fermenting starch and both fiber fractions was 0.370 L/kg compared with ethanol yield of 0.334 L/kg obtained by fermenting starch alone.