Coprocessing Corn Germ Meal for Oil Recovery and Ethanol Production: A Process Model for Lipid-Producing Energy Crops

Jia, Yuyao; Kumar, Deepak; Winkler-Moser, Jill K.; Dien, Bruce; Rausch, Kent; Tumbleson, Mike E.; Singh, Vijay

doi:10.3390/pr10040661

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Coprocessing Corn Germ Meal for Oil Recovery and Ethanol Production: A Process Model for Lipid-Producing Energy Crops

by

Yuyao Jia

^1,2,

Deepak Kumar

^2,3

,

Jill K. Winkler-Moser

⁴,

Bruce Dien

^2,4,

Kent Rausch

¹

,

Mike E. Tumbleson

¹ and

Vijay Singh

^1,2,*

¹

Department of Agricultural and Biological Engineering, University of Illinois, 1304 W. Pennsylvania Avenue, Urbana, IL 61801, USA

²

DOE Center for Advanced Bioenergy and Bioproducts Innovation, University of Illinois, 1206 W. Gregory Drive, Urbana, IL 61801, USA

³

Department of Chemical Engineering, State University of New York College of Environmental Science and Forestry, Syracuse, NY 13210, USA

⁴

USDA, Agricultural Research Service, National Center for Agricultural Utilization Research, 1815 N University St, Peoria, IL 61604, USA

^*

Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.

Processes 2022, 10(4), 661; https://doi.org/10.3390/pr10040661

Submission received: 2 March 2022 / Revised: 19 March 2022 / Accepted: 28 March 2022 / Published: 29 March 2022

(This article belongs to the Topic Chemical and Biochemical Processes for Energy Sources)

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Abstract

Efforts to engineer high-productivity crops to accumulate oils in their vegetative tissue present the possibility of expanding biodiesel production. However, processing the new crops for lipid recovery and ethanol production from cell wall saccharides is challenging and expensive. In a previous study using corn germ meal as a model substrate, we reported that liquid hot water (LHW) pretreatment enriched the lipid concentration by 2.2 to 4.2 fold. This study investigated combining oil recovery with ethanol production by extracting oil following LHW and simultaneous saccharification and co-fermentation (SSCF) of the biomass. Corn germ meal was again used to model the oil-bearing energy crops. Pretreated germ meal hydrolysate or solids (160 and 180 °C for 10 min) were fermented, and lipids were extracted from both the spent fermentation whole broth and fermentation solids, which were recovered by centrifugation and convective drying. Lipid contents in spent fermentation solids increased 3.7 to 5.7 fold compared to the beginning germ meal. The highest lipid yield achieved after fermentation was 36.0 mg lipid g⁻¹ raw biomass; the maximum relative amount of triacylglycerol (TAG) was 50.9% of extracted oil. Although the fermentation step increased the lipid concentration of the recovered solids, it did not improve the lipid yields of pretreated biomass and detrimentally affected oil compositions by increasing the relative concentrations of free fatty acids.

Keywords: oil-bearing energy crops; corn germ meal; oil recovery; cellulosic ethanol

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MDPI and ACS Style

Jia, Y.; Kumar, D.; Winkler-Moser, J.K.; Dien, B.; Rausch, K.; Tumbleson, M.E.; Singh, V. Coprocessing Corn Germ Meal for Oil Recovery and Ethanol Production: A Process Model for Lipid-Producing Energy Crops. Processes 2022, 10, 661. https://doi.org/10.3390/pr10040661

AMA Style

Jia Y, Kumar D, Winkler-Moser JK, Dien B, Rausch K, Tumbleson ME, Singh V. Coprocessing Corn Germ Meal for Oil Recovery and Ethanol Production: A Process Model for Lipid-Producing Energy Crops. Processes. 2022; 10(4):661. https://doi.org/10.3390/pr10040661

Chicago/Turabian Style

Jia, Yuyao, Deepak Kumar, Jill K. Winkler-Moser, Bruce Dien, Kent Rausch, Mike E. Tumbleson, and Vijay Singh. 2022. "Coprocessing Corn Germ Meal for Oil Recovery and Ethanol Production: A Process Model for Lipid-Producing Energy Crops" Processes 10, no. 4: 661. https://doi.org/10.3390/pr10040661

APA Style

Jia, Y., Kumar, D., Winkler-Moser, J. K., Dien, B., Rausch, K., Tumbleson, M. E., & Singh, V. (2022). Coprocessing Corn Germ Meal for Oil Recovery and Ethanol Production: A Process Model for Lipid-Producing Energy Crops. Processes, 10(4), 661. https://doi.org/10.3390/pr10040661

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Coprocessing Corn Germ Meal for Oil Recovery and Ethanol Production: A Process Model for Lipid-Producing Energy Crops

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