A high oil corn and its biorefining model for biofuel production

A corn breed that had more than 19% oil in the kernel was found in North Korea by researchers from the University of Minnesota. With rapid growth of bio-fuel industry, and the needs to find new feedstock for biodiesel production, this corn was believed to have potential for dual-fuel production: lipids for biodiesel and starch for ethanol. In this study, the fractionation information of this corn was collected and compared to a corn with common oil content, and a biorefining model based on the 100-gram sample wet milling procedure was raised. The degermination process in laboratory wet milling was modified to separate the giant germs. The oil extraction, biodiesel conversion, and starch fermentation results didn't show processing properties that were significantly different from common corn breeds. It was found that besides the superior high oil content, the fatty acid composition of this corn was slightly different from common corn. The starch viscosity and starch-protein ratio of this corn were comparable to common corn breeds.