PROPOSED CORN GERM OIL PRODUCTION
There is no denying the high prices that we have been experiencing that are accorded to cooking oil
in Lesotho. Here I propose the production line of corn germ oil.
BENEFITS OF CORN GERM OIL PRODUCTION
IMPLEMENTATION PLAN
In order to understand the corn oil extraction process and how corn oil is extracted during ethanol
production, it helps to first understand how corn is processed.
Broadly speaking, corn processing is broken up into wet milling and dry milling.
Processing Corn by Wet Milling
Wet milling is primarily used to make food ingredients: sweeteners, starch, corn oil, and so on.
(Ethanol can be produced this way, but it’s less common; only about 10 percent of U.S. ethanol
production starts with wet milling.)
This process is called “wet milling” because the corn is pre-soaked to soften the kernel and begin
separating it into its constituent parts. It’s then fed through a series of mills and centrifuges. These
separate the germ, starch, fiber, and gluten proteins. These are then separately processed to create
various food additives and other products:
The fiber is pressed and dried to become animal feed
Some of the starch becomes cornstarch for baking, or is refined into sugar
Enzymes and yeast are added to a different portion of the starches to begin the fermentation and
distillation processes needed to make ethanol
Solvents are used to extract corn oil from the germ
… and so on
The corn oil that comes out of the wet-milling process is primarily intended for human consumption,
and is held to those standards. It’s often called “crude corn oil” (CCO).
Wet milling is a very versatile process—it can be tuned to produce many different co-products in
differing ratios. But it is also capital intensive, and relatively slow.
How Is Corn Oil Extracted Differently in Different Plants?
Wet milling—as primarily a food production process—relies on a traditional food-production friendly
solvent-based method of extracting corn oil, which usually relies on hexane. Hexane is extremely
effective in this role (capturing 90 percent of the corn oil), and relatively easy to remove from the
resulting extract, leaving pure corn oil behind. That’s good news if you’re looking to make foodgrade oil. While a solvent-based extraction is very consistent, it’s also a slow and expensive process.
Dry-grind plants take a different approach, largely relying on two-phase centrifuges. This is fast and
inexpensive—but the yields can seem to vary quite unpredictably. That’s because this process is
newer—something ethanol producers really only started reliable pursuing over the last dozen or so
years—and subject to a large number of contributing factors that (everything from daily variations in
stillage to centrifuge speed to ambient temperature).
Today, most dry-grind ethanol plants are extracting corn oil—it’s an important way to protect their
profit margins as ethanol prices dip and dive. Those who are doing so effectively are relying on
emulsion breakers to smooth out this variability and drastically increase yields. While most emulsion
breakers are polysorbate-based, a new generation of non-polysorbate based chemistry is gaining
traction. These new breakers are much more efficient for many plants, increasing yields while
drastically reducing the amount of chemistry needed to extract corn oil.
Vegetables and fruits we can dehydrate and grind into powder
VEGETABLES
TOMATOES
ONION
CHILLIES
SPINACH
POTATOES
CARROTS
BEETROOT
BROCOLLI
CAULIFLOWER
CUCUMBER
FRUITS
APPLES
BANANAS
BERRIES
PINEAPPLES
APRICOT
PEACHES
TOROFEILE