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ARS Home » Pacific West Area » Aberdeen, Idaho » Small Grains and Potato Germplasm Research » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #302584
Title: New co-products from grain-based fuel ethanol production and their drying performance

Author
item Liu, Keshun
item Milczarek, Rebecca
item Barrows, Frederic

Submitted to: American Oil Chemists' Society Meeting
Publication Type: Abstract Only
Publication Acceptance Date: 3/12/2014
Publication Date: 5/4/2014
Citation: Liu, K., Milczarek, R.R., Barrows, F. 2014. New co-products from grain-based fuel ethanol production and their drying performance. American Oil Chemists' Society Meeting. PCP 5 Sysposium.

Interpretive Summary:

Technical Abstract: Fuel ethanol production in the U.S. and elsewhere is an important and growing industry. In the U.S, about 40% of annual corn production is now converted into fuel ethanol. During co-product recovery, condensed distillers solubles (CDS) has to be mixed with distillers wet grains before drying due to CDS’s recalcitrance to drying. This results in distillers dried grains with solubles, a major co-product of dry-grind ethanol processing. Recently, at USDA-ARS we developed chemical, physical, and physicochemical methods for fractionating CDS. The effort not only results in several new co-products with value-added uses but also addresses the dewatering problem of CDS and makes it possible to dry each component alone. When convectively dried at 60°C, all the new fractions showed faster drying rates than CDS, except for the glycerol-rich fraction. To further demonstrate the improved drying performance of the new fractions, we used a drum dryer to dry a protein-rich fraction and CDS (the control). Results show that while both materials could be dried to a range of endpoint moisture contents, the dried protein-rich fraction exhibited a broader range of water activity and lighter color than CDS and that the new fraction can be readily drum-dried into a shelf-stable, flaked product.