Corn distillers dried grains (DDG), the coproducts of ethanol production are inexpensive, available in large quantities and contain carbohydrates, proteins and oil that can used for various industrial applications. At about $100-130 per ton, DDG is a cheap raw material and more than 10 million tons of DDG are produced in the United States every year. Zein in DDG can be extracted with properties better than that of commercially available zein. Similarly, the hemicellulose in DDG shows high sorption capacity and the cellulose can be used as a dietary fiber or to make films. Alternatively, DDG can be directly used to develop thermoplastic products after chemical modifications. Our acetylation and etherification of DDG show that chemically modified DDG can be compression molded into thermoplastic products.

Bioproducts from corn distillers dried grains

243rd National Meeting (2012)

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