Skip to main content
U.S. Department of Energy
Office of Scientific and Technical Information

Pretreatment and enzymatic hydrolysis of corn fiber

Conference ·
OSTI ID:370936
 [1];  [2]
  1. USDA Citrus and Subtropical Products Research Labs., Winter Haven, CT (United States)
  2. National Center for Agricultural Utilization Research, Peoria, IL (United States)
Corn fiber is a co-product of the corn wet milling industry which is usually marketed as a low value animal feed ingredient. Approximately 1.2 x 10{sup 6} dry tons of this material are produced annually in the United States. The fiber is composed of kernel cell wall fractions and a residual starch which can all be potentially hydrolyzed to a mixture of glucose, xylose, arabinose and galactose. We have investigated a sequential saccharification of polysaccharides in corn fiber by a treatment with dilute sulfuric acid at 100 to 160{degrees}C followed by partial neutralization and enzymatic hydrolysis with mixed cellulose and amyloglucosidase enzymes at 45{degrees}C. The sequential treatment achieved a high (approximately 85%) conversion of all polysaccharides in the corn fiber to monomeric sugars, which were in most cases fermentable to ethanol by the recombinant bacterium Escherichia coli KOll.
OSTI ID:
370936
Report Number(s):
CONF-960376--
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English