Replacing Petrochemicals with Biochemicals made from Corn

ifr180608–148
Replacing Petrochemicals with Biochemicals made from Corn
Vijah Singh, Agricultural Engineer - University of Illinois

Farmers gathered in St. Louis this week (June 4, 5, 6) to learn about future uses for the nation’s number one commodity crop. Todd Gleason has more from the Corn Utilization Technology Conference.

CUTC happens every two years…
1:45 radio
2:02 self-contained
1:45 tv
2:02 tv cg

CUTC happens every two years. It is a conference dedicated to future uses of corn. Vijay Singh is a regular. He works for the agricultural college at the University of Illinois and specializes in engineering ethanol processing plants. He sees them expanding to include biochemical production in the near future.

Singh :23 …comes from the corn processing industry.

Quote Summary - You know chemicals have been around, but they come from petroleum sources. Now what we are doing is rather than using petroleum sources is using renewable sources. That’s the big thing right now and for that we need large amounts of sugar. The U.S. is at a major advantage in terms of producing sugars from corn and that comes from the corn processing industry.

To this point in time the industry has focused on producing food, high fructose corn syrup, ethanol and some other co-products.

Singh :13 …polymers, and things like that.

Quote Summary - So, sugar has become the preferred feedstock for producing these high-value biochemicals that will be used for consumer products, polymers, and things like that.

Things made from crude oil, petrochemicals, but that can now economically be made from a renewable source, corn.

Sing :24 …be used to produce biochemicals

Quote Summary - Because in ethanol production we are capped at 15 billion gallons and there is not much room to grow unless that cap is lifted. So, what’s happening, or what we are starting to see is that more and more dry-grind ethanol plants are starting to produce sugar rather than producing ethanol or biofuel because those sugars can then be used to produce biochemicals.

A new use which takes advantage of the existing ethanol production infrastructure to replace a petrochemical product with one made from corn.