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1984

Fuel Ethanol from Raw Corn

Curtis Weller
University of Nebraska-Lincoln, cweller1@unl.edu

M. P. Steinberg
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

E. D. Rodda
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

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Weller, Curtis; Steinberg, M. P.; and Rodda, E. D., "Fuel Ethanol from Raw Corn" (1984). Biological Systems Engineering: Papers and
Publications. 196.
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 Fuel Ethanol from Raw Corn
C. L. Weller, M. P. Steinberg, E. D . Rodda
MEMBER
ASAE
ABSTRACT
RUDE amylase preparations were produced by
C growing Aspergillus awamori and A. niger on raw,
ground, whole corn. These Koji preparations were used
to hydrolyze the starch of raw, ground whole corn to
sugars during simultaneous fermentation of the sugars to
ethanol by distillers active dry yeast. Ethanol
concentrations of the fermentation beers were
determined with gas-chromatography. These
fermentations yielded an average of 89.6% theoretical
ethanol compared to control, conventional,
fermentations that had an average of 89.9%. Carbon
dioxide evolutions were determined with use of Alwood
valves. The initial fermentation rate was greater for the
conventional fermentation than the Koji fermentation.
However, both fermentations produced 0.48 g of carbon
dioxide per gram of dry substrate starch within 72 h.
Koji dehydrated at 41 °C had no apparent detrimental
effects on theoretical ethanol yield.
INTRODUCTION
The United States and its agricultural community are
heavily dependent upon liquid fuels derived from
petroleum (Hall, 1981). The magnitude of this
dependence was clearly demonstrated in the early 1970's
when oil prices increased dramatically and the abundant
supply of fuels dwindled (Doering, 1981). Interest in
alternative fuels swept across this country almost
immediately. People, particularly farmers, realized they
needed to develop dependable sources of liquid fuels.
Ethanol is an attractive alternative fuel because it can be
produced from dependable and renewable resources,
farm-grown feedstocks such as corn.
However, continued efforts to develop more efficient
technology for the production of such liquid fuel from
corn are needed. Presently, ethanol is produced by
synthesis from ethylene, by fermentation and as a by-
product of butanol and glycerol fermentations. The
fermentation production of ethanol accounted for only
10% of all ethanol produced in the United States in
1975; this increased to 30% in 1980 and is still increasing
(Sherman and Kavasmaneck, 1980; and Eveleigh, 1981).
Most of the increase is the result of production by such
wet-milling industry giants as Archer-Daniels-Midland
Article was submitted for publication in November, 1983; reviewed
and approved for publication by the Electric Power and Processing Div.
of ASAE in May, 1984. Presented as ASAE Paper No. 83-3066.
The authors are: C. L. WELLER, Research Assistant, M. P.
STEINBERG, and E. D. RODDA, Professors, Agricultural
Engineering and Food Science Dept., University of Illinois, Urbana.
Acknowledgement: Support for this study was supplied in part by the
Illinois Dept. of Energy and Natural Resources Alternative Energy
Bond Fund. Commercial enzymes preparations were supplied through
the courtesy of Novo Laboratories, Wilton, CT.
1984--TRANSACTIONS of the ASAE © 1984 American Society of Agricultural Engineers 0001-2351/84/2706-1911$02.00
MEMBER
ASAE
Co., A. E. Staley Manufacturing Co. and CPC
International Inc. (with Texaco Inc.). These companies
normally produce corn starch from corn and then
hydrolyze the starch to glucose which can be quite readily
converted to ethanol. The hydrolysis, fermentation and
distillation processes consume large amounts of energy.
Cooking to gelatinize the starch prior to enzymatic
hydrolysis consumes approximately 17% of this energy
(Garcia et al., 1982). Thus, cooking energy contributes
to the large processing energy demand that has brought
the economic feasibility of on-farm or small-scale ethanol
production into question. Recent studies have shown on-
farm production of ethanol to be an exeedingly high-cost
operation (Lockeretz, 1982).
Efforts to reduce the energy costs in ethanol
production, primarily cooking costs, date back to the
late nineteenth century, when starch components were
just beginning to be defined. Methods for hydrolyzing
raw starch were being studied. In one method, malt-
extract was added to ungelatinized, triturated corn and
wheat to produce 2 to 25% glucose and 10 to 14%
dextrins within 20 hours (Brown and Heron, 1879). Blish
and his co-workers (1937) published their observations of
the actions of wheat amylases on raw wheat starch; they
claimed normal wheat flour contained an enzyme factor,
not alpha-amylase, that accelerated the saccharification
of raw untreated wheat starch. Support for this
observation was obtained by others (Sandstedt and
Gates, 1954; and Walker and Hope, 1963).
Balls and Schwimmer (1944) reported that
ungelatinized corn, wheat and potato starches could be
completely hydrolyzed by a mixture of extracts of hog
pancreas and A, oryzae Koji grown on wheat bran. Koji
(Milall, 1975) of this type had been first introduced into
the United States by Takamine (1914) and was
confirmed by Underkofler et al. (1939) as being the
Aspergillus with the greatest amylolytic activity that
could feasibly be produced commercially.
Schwimmer (1945) postulated that this Koji contained
a complimentary non-amylolytic factor that caused the
complete and rapid digestion of raw starch. In 1948,
Corman and Langlykke added to the understanding of
the Koji amylases when they discovered a fraction of the
amylases (later named glucoamylase) which was highly
glucogenic. Further studies of Koji amylases by
Yamasaki and Ueda (1951) revealed that Black-Koji {A.
niger and A. awamori) amylases had stronger raw starch
hydrolyzing activity than those of Yellow-Koji {A.
oryzae) amylases and malt amylases. They also
reconfirmed the earlier findings of Balls and Schwimmer
(1944) that raw corn starch was more readily digested
than raw wheat or potato starches. Ueda (1958a)
reported that the Koji amylases from A. awamori
contained two fractions but only one of which had raw
starch digestive activity.
1911
 Glucoamylases in Koji amylases of both A. niger and
A. awamori were shown to be of two fractions (Pazur and
Ando, 1959 and Watanabe and Fukimbara, 1965).
Smiley et al. (1971) tried to determine the reason for the
existence of these two fractions but were unable to come
to any conclusions. Ueda et al. (1974) later confirmed the
presence of two glucoamylases. They reported one of the
glucoamylase fractions was highly active in raw starch
digestion. This fraction likely had given the Koji amylase
fraction which Ueda discovered in 1958 its raw starch
degrading activity.
Based on the discovery of raw starch degrading
capability, Ueda and Koba (1980) developed a
continuous fermentation system that used Aspergillus
glucoamylase and Psuedomonas isoamylase to hydrolyze
raw corn starch. Their system produced 7% (v/v)
ethanol in three days, but required periodic removal of
inhibitory substances. Another continuous raw corn
starch fermentation system was reported by Lutzen
(1980) but it required 40% starch substrate slurries and
a large amount of handling to obtain 10% (w/w) yields of
ethanol. Additionally, Ueda et al. (1981) developed a
simultaneous hydrolysis and fermentation process for
raw, ground, whole cassava that used a dual culture of
A. awamori and A. niger grown on sterile wheat bran to
produce glucoamylases for hydrolysis of the raw, ground,
whole cassava. They fermented the raw cassava to
ethanol by simultaneous hydrolysis of starch and
fermentation of sugars to ethanol. Their yields of ethanol
ranged between 82.3 and 99.6% of theoretical based on
starch content of the cassava. Further studies reported
89.0 to 90.0% theoretical ethanol yields from both raw
corn and cassava starch (Park and Rivera, 1982). A
recent simultaneous hydrolysis using amylases from
Rhizopus and fermentation of raw, ground corn was
developed by Matsumoto et al. (1982). They reported
88.3% theoretical ethanol yields with ethanol
concentrations of 14.2% (v/v) in the beer. Also in 1982,
Hayashida et al. hydrolyzed raw, ground corn using a
liquid Koji (submerged culture) from A. awamori in
conjunction with fermentation by an ethanol tolerant
mutant of Sake yeast to obtain an ethanol concentration
of 20.1% (v/v) in 5 days.
Previous work by Ueda et al. (1981) with a Koji
amylase system acting on raw cassava showed some
promise. As a result, the approach of this research was
patterned after theirs with two modifications: (a) raw,
ground whole corn was substituted for sterile wheat bran
as the Koji substrate since it is cheaper and more readily
available than wheat bran and (b) raw, ground whole
corn as typically used for animal feeding was taken as
fermentation substrate. Innovative use of raw, ground
whole corn would help reduce production costs since (a)
such technology could easily be adapted to small-scale
ethanol production, (b) available equipment could be
used for corn preparation and (c) management time and
costs would be the same or less than in conventional
production of ethanol.
Dehydration of raw corn Koji was also studied to see
what effect this would have on ethanol yields.
Dehydration of the Koji without losing amylase activity
would allow for its large-scale production in one
centralized location and distribution for use at other
locations. Time, labor and operating costs at the
fermentation site would be reduced by use of a dry Koji.
1912
OBJECTIVES
Objectives of this work were to produce Koji on raw,
ground whole corn; to test this Koji for ethanol yields in a
simultaneous hydrolysis-fermentation of raw, ground
whole corn; to evaluate procedures for Koji preservation.
The overall objective was to develop a process for
producing ethanol from corn in small-scale plants with
reduced energy input and high yields.
PROCEDURES
Koji Preparation
Crude amylases used for hydrolysis in Experiment I
comparing Koji fermentation ethanol yields with those of
conventional fermentation were produced by a dual
culture Koji of A. niger (isolated from spoiled bread) and
A. Awamori (NRRL 3112) grown on raw, ground, whole
Yellow No. 2 corn obtained from the University of
Illinois farm feedmill. Five grams of corn (13.5%
moisture), ground with a 1.27 cm hammermill, were
inoculated with a 5 mL 0.1% Triton X-100 suspension
containing 10^ to 10^ spores of A. niger and a similar
suspension of A. awamori for each fermentation. The
spore suspensions were well mixed with the corn which
was spread in thin layers (< 5 mm) on Pyrex baking
dishes. These dishes were then covered with aluminum
foil to retain moisture and incubated for 72 h at 25°C in
a controlled temperature chamber.
Four Kojis were prepared as above for Experiment II
on Koji preservation. The control was given no further
treatment. For the second, Koji was dehydrated at room
temperature for 18 h in an evacuated desiccator
containing activated alumina. For the third, Koji was
placed in a covered dish and heated for 18 h in a forced
air oven (Blue M Electric Co., Blue Island, Illinois) at
41°C. For the fourth, Koji was placed in an open dish
and simultaneously heated and dehydrated for 18 h in
the forced air oven at 41°C.
Koji Hydrolysis and Fermentation
All Koji hydrolyses and fermentations took place in
500 mL Erlenmeyer flasks and followed a standardized
procedure. This procedure was developed to better
simulate field conditions of a small-scale ethanol
production facility were reduced labor and management
would likely take greater priority than maintaining
optimum operational parameters. Ingredients for each
trial were 45 g of 13.5% moisture raw, ground whole
corn, 15 g of Koji, 200 mL of tap water, 10 drops of 85%
phosphoric acid to adjust pH to the range of 4.0 to 4.2
and 0.05 g of distillers active dry yeast (Universal Foods,
Inc., Milwaukee, Wisconsin). All ingredients were added
at once and mixed well. Starch concentrations, including
starch present in the Koji prior to propagation, were held
at 13 to 14% (w/w) to facilitate wetting the Koji mat
which forms during the Koji incubation. Mixing,
provided by a magnetic stirring bar was continued at
intervals of one minute every 15 min. The incubations
were carried out for 72 h in a controlled environment
cabinet at 32°C.
Conventional Fermentation
Conventional fermentations using heat-gelatinized
starch took place in 500 mL Erlenmeyer flasks and
followed a representative small-scale ethanol production
TRANSACTIONS of the ASAE—1984
 TABLE 1. THEORETICAL A N D OBSERVED E T H A N O L CONCENTRATIONS
A N D THEORETICAL E T H A N O L YIELD FOR ALL FERMENTATIONS
Observed Theoretical Observed Theoretical
Fermentation ethanol, ethanol. ethanol, yield.
v/v% g g %
Experiment I

Conventional 1 8.10 15.30 13.72 89.7

Conventional 2 8.43 15.30 13.78 90.1
Raw ground whole
corn Koji 1 8.67 18.64 16.40 88.0
Raw ground whole
corn Koji 2 8.79 18.84 16.75 88.9
Raw ground whole
corn Koji 3 8.77 18.78 16.94 90.2
Raw ground whole
corn Koji 4 8.89 18.75 17.09 91.2
Experiment II

Control Koji 1 8.63 19.62 16.58 84.5

Control Koji 2 8.83 19.78 16.85 85.2
Room temperature
dehydrated Koji 1 8.54 19.36 15.62 80.7
Room temperature
dehydrated Koji 2 8.67 19.47 15.78 81.0
41 °C dehydrated
Koji 1 8.28 19.49 16.10 82.6
41 °C dehydrated
Koji 2 8.48 19.36 16.49 85.2
41 °C heated
Koji 1 8.77 19.78 16.80 84.9
41 °C heated
Koji 2 8.60 19.60 16.94 86.4

process (Weller, 1983). Initially, 45 g of 13.5% moisture
raw ground whole corn, 85 mL of tap water, 0.03 mL of
alpha-amylase, Termamyl 50L (Novo Laboratories,
Wilton, Connecticut) and one drop of concentrated
ammonium hydroxide were mixed together in the flasks.
The flasks were heated to 85°C and held for two hours
with constant stirring. They were then cooled to 60°C by
adding 45 mL tap water. Next, the mash pH was
adjusted to 4.0 to 4.2 with 10 drops of 85% phosphoric
acid and 0.08 ml of glucoamylase, AMG 150L (Novo
Laboratories) were added. The mash was held at 60°C
with constant stirring for one hour before cooling to 35°C
by adding 45 mL of tap water and bathing the flask in
tap water. The mash pH was again adjusted to 4.0 to 4.2
with 10 drops of 85% phosphoric acid before adding 0.05
g of distillers active dry yeast to the mash. A magnetic
stirring bar was then added to provide 15 min of stirring
per hour during the incubation of 72 h at 32°C in the
controlled environment chamber.
Carbon Dioxide Determination
The metabolic pathway that produces ethanol also
produces carbon dioxide on an equimolar basis.
Therefore, carbon dioxide production was recorded
during the incubation period to provide an estimate of
the ethanol production rate. Alwood valves (Rascher and
Betzold, Inc., Chicago, IL) containing concentrated
sulfuric acid were used to trap moisture from the evolved
carbon dioxide stream. Weight of the flask-valve
assembly was recorded over time; loss in weight was
taken as carbon dioxide evolution.
Ethanol Determination
Ethanol concentrations of the beers were determined
using a Kemmerer-Hallett lab-scale steam distillation
system and a Varian 3700 gas-chromatograph (Varian
Associates, Inc., Palo Alto, CA) interfaced with a
Hewlett-Packard 3390A Integrator (Avondale, PA) and
equipped with a Flame Ionization Detector (FID).
Representative 25 mL samples of each beer were first
distilled to separate the ethanol from solubles and
suspended solids. Then 0.5 ^xL of 1:10 dilutions of the
beers were injected into the 80/120 Carbopack B/5%
Carbowax 20M gas-chromatograph column (Suppleco,
Inc., Bellafonte, PA) for comparison with 1% (v/v)
ethanol external standard solutions. The column
temperature was 135°C with a carrier gas (helium) flow
of 20 mL/min. The injector temperature was 150°C and
the FID temperature was 250°C. Air and hydrogen were
used as detector gases.
RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
Koji on Corn
Suitability of raw corn for Koji enzyme development
and as a fermentation substrate was determined by
comparing theoretical yields of experimental
fermentations to those from conventional fermentations.
Conventional fermentations used the same corn
fermentation substrate as used in the Koji hydrolyses and
fermentations. Theoretical yields for the Koji and
conventional fermentations were based on the ethanol
obtainable if 100% of the starch present in the mash was
used (see Appendix).
Ethanol Yields: Two control trials of conventional
fermentation were performed. Theoretical yields (Table
1) were 89.7 and 90.1%, for an average of 89.9%. These
yields were slightly less than the 90.0 to 94.0% expected
by industry (Paturau, 1982 and Schopmeyer, 1982); but
were consistent with those reported by Yang et al. (1982)
and Garcia et al. (1982). However, the use of a standard
literature value for the amount of starch in the corn,
70% (dry solids basis) (Inglett, 1970), may have affected
the theoretical yields. Another major factor that
undoubtedly decreased yields below the industry

1984—TRANSACTIONS of the ASAE 1913

 TABLE 2. SIEVE ANALYSIS OF GROUND
CORN FEEDSTOCK BY ASAE STANDARD S319
(POUND, 1982)
US standard Weight percent retained
sieve mesh on designated screen
4 0.7
6 4.8
8 8.1
12 10.6
16 18.7
20 8.8
35 17.4
50 10.6
60 8.8
120 9.8
140 1.4
Bottom pan 0.3
100.0
standard was the size of the corn particles used as
substrate. The corn particles varied in size as can be seen
in Table 2. The larger particles, with smaller surface to
volume ratios, resulted in reduced yields due to
incomplete hydrolysis. The germ of the kernel, in some
instances, was still attached to endosperm prior to
fermentation and this reduced the surface area for
amylase activity. Furthermore, yeast growth and
metabolism and the production of glycerol and fusel oils,
ethanol fermentation by-products as noted by Yang et al.
(1982), may also have affected the yields.
Four replicate trials using raw corn for both Koji
preparation and hydrolysis resulted in 88.0, 88.9, 90.2,
and 91.2% theoretical yields (Table 1) for an average of
89.6%. Analysis of variance indicated the Koji
fermentation average yield is not significantly different
from the 89.9% average yield for conventional
fermentation at the 5% level of probability. The Koji
fermentations were affected not only by the same factors
as conventional fermentation but also by assimilation of
carbon from the starch by the Aspergilli for cell growth
and metabolism, so ultimately less sugar was available
for conversion to ethanol and carbon dioxide.
Furthermore, the reduced yield may have been caused by
a lower yeast inoculum; the Koji fermentations contained
0.0015 g distillers active dry yeast/g dry substrate starch
while in the conventional fermentations the ratio was
0.0018. The inoculum discrepancy arose because the
same amount of yeast (0.05 g) was added to both Koji
FERMENTATION TIME, hrs
Fig. 1—Average fermentation curves showing carbon dioxide
production with time during ethanol production from raw corn
hydrolyzed with a raw ground whole corn Koji ( • - • ) as compared to
conventional gelatinized corn hydrolyzed with commercial enzymes (O
-O).
1914
and conventional fermentations. Each fermentation
contained the same initial 45 g of corn substrate;
however, Koji fermentations contained additional starch
from the corn used to propagate the mold.
Fermentation Rate: In order to evaluate the rate of
ethanol production from Koji hydrolyzed sugars, carbon
dioxide production over time was compared for
conventional and Koji fermentations (Fig. 1). The total
weight of carbon dioxide evolved during a given
fermentation time was used as an estimate of the total
weight of ethanol produced during that given
fermentation. Both curves show the same lag time, about
five hours. The conventional curve in Fig. 1 shows a more
rapid rise in carbon dioxide production than the Koji
curve; using the time between 5 and 24 h, the rate was
14% greater for conventional fermentation. The
conventional curve asymptotes to the maximum yield at
about 40 h while the Koji curve does not reach this point
until about 60 h. In both cases, this maximum carbon
dioxide production was the same at 0.48 g/g dry
substrate starch.
The slower production rate exhibited by the Koji
fermentation may be attributed wholly or in part, to one
of several observations made by previous researchers.
Ueda (1957a, 1957b and 1974), Ueda and Kano (1975),
Sandstedt and Ueda (1969) and Matsumoto et al. (1982)
have studied the adsorption phenomenon of
glucoamylase on starch molecules and have closely
correlated the level of starch hydrolysis with the level of
adsorption. Adsorption of glucoamylase onto raw starch
of the Koji fermentations may have been slower than that
on gelatinized starch of the conventional fermentations,
subsequently reducing the ethanol production rate of the
Koji fermentations.
Another factor that may have affected the
fermentations is the initial level of glucose in each mash
at the time of yeast inoculation. Conventional
fermentation started hydrolysis 3 h prior to yeast
addition whereas Koji fermentation simultaneously
began hydrolysis and fermentation; thereby allowing
initial glucose levels in conventional fermentation to be
greater than those in Koji fermentation.
Nevertheless, no definite conclusions can be drawn to
clearly account for the rate difference. Opportunities for
further research abound and would most likely center on
the aforementioned factors.
Koji Preservation
Criteria for evaluation of the four Koji preservation
methods were the theoretical ethanol yields from
subsequent fermentations. Holding time for each
respective preservation treatment was 18 h with the Koji
used immediately thereafter. Moisture variations
between the dehydrated and undehydrated Koji were
compensated for by adding additional water during
initial mixing prior to hydrolysis and fermentation.
Theoretical ethanol yields from Kojis dehydrated at
room temperature and at 41% were compared with those
from fermentations using a heated but not dehydrated
Koji and a control (unheated and undehydrated) Koji
(Table 1). The heated, undehydrated Koji was included
to determine whether heating alone affected ethanol
yields. Two replicates using room temperature
dehydrated Koji gave an average yield of 80.9% while
replicates using Koji dehydrated at 40°C averaged
83.9%. The undehydrated Koji heated to 41°C yielded
TRANSACTIONS of the ASAE—1984
an average of 85.7% theoretical ethanol and the control
yielded 84.9%.
Analysis of variance indicated that the room
temperature dehydrated Koji gave a yield that was
significantly lower than the others at the 5% level of
probability. This yield was about 81% as compared to an
average of approximately 85% for the other three.
However, all four values were lower than those for the
conventional control which averaged almost 90% yield
(Table 1); it should be noted that incubation
temperature dropped below 25 °C for the four
preservation trials and this might have caused the
reduced yields. However, the important point is that Koji
dehydration at 41 °C gave results statistically equivalent
to the untreated Koji within the same experiment; the
yield was reduced only one percent. Storage studies
should be made to test for shelf life of this dehydrated
Koji.
GENERAL IMPLICATIONS
The overall objective was to develop a process for
fermenting the starch in raw corn, so that the cooking
step presently used could be eliminated to save energy. In
addition to reducing energy requirements and
maintaining high ethanol yields, the new process may
produce high-value by-products not available from
present conventional small-scale processes. Thus,
stillage presently obtained from conventional
fermentation of cooked corn represents a disposal
problem. It can be dried at tremendous energy cost by
evaporating nine kg of water to obtain one kg of solids
for sale as a feed ingredient (Solar Energy Research
Institute, 1982), or it can be fed wet, but this would
require a large animal feeding operation. For instance, a
plant with an annual capacity of 308,890 L of anhydrous
ethanol would require a feedlot holding at least 76 head
of cattle (Day and Chen, 1980). A waste disposal plant
would be as large as the fermentation-distillation
operation. Disposal on the land is also costly.
By the new process, the beer contains raw gluten and
germ in addition to ethanol. If separated, the by-
products could be of the same quantity and quality as
obtained by corn wet-milling which results in three major
products, crude corn oil, corn gluten feed (21% protein)
and corn gluten meal (60% protein) (Corn Refiners
Association, Inc. 1982). Representative by-product
values, based on prices for corn wet-milling products on
three dates along with corn feedstock prices on those
dates, are presented in Table 3. However, before the
values can be realized, further investigations must be
made. Included are methods for separating the
individual by-product components from the beer, the
TABLE 3. CASH MARKET PRICES FOR CORN AND CORN WET-MILLING
BY-PRODUCTS AND TOTAL VALUE OF BY-PRODUCTS BASED ON A CUBIC
METER* OF CORN FEEDSTOCK
Feedstock
value
Yellow No. 2,t Gluten feed,$
Date
09-21-82 59.59 22.42
03-04-83 79.03 22.63
07-22-83 96.20 23.04
*0.03524 m^ = 1 bushel (56 lb, 15.5% moisture, 2.5 gal ETOH/bu)
tSource: The Andersons, Champaign, IL
$ Source: Al Collins, Jacobsen Publishing Co., 300 W. Adams, Chicago, IL
1984—TRANSACTIONS of the ASAE
effects of fermentation upon the nutritional value of by-
products and the economics of any proposed by-product
recovery system for small-scale ethanol operations.
SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS
This study shows that raw corn can be used to produce
ethanol at reduced energy and other costs with yields
comparable to the conventional process. This new
approach should enable high quality protein and oil
recovery.
Raw whole corn ground in a hammermill typical of
those on farms can be used as the substrate for
production of enzymes (Koji) as well as the fermentation
to obtain an average 89.6% of theoretical ethanol yield.
Success with using corn of this grind indicated that it
may readily be used in both large- and small-scale
production operations with a limited investment in
grinding equipment.
Gelatinization of raw ground whole corn was not
necessary prior to hydrolysis by Koji fermentations. The
amylases produced by the Koji were able to degrade the
raw starch to fermentable sugars. Elimination of the
cooking step lowers energy inputs of ethanol production
and eliminates the need for cookers. Thus, operating
costs and capital costs can be reduced for both large- and
small-scale production facilities when compared to
present operations.
All the ingredients were combined in one vessel so
fermentation occurred simultaneously with the
hydrolysis. Therefore, as soon as sugars were formed, the
yeast utilized them for ethanol production. Combining
all of these processes into one vessel reduces
management. Thus, costs for time, labor and
management can be reduced for both large- and small-
scale production facilities over those for existing
operations.
Carbon dioxide production values indicated that
ethanol production for the Koji fermentations were not
initially as rapid as for the conventional fermentations.
However, both processes eventually produced the same
amount of carbon dioxide within 72 hours.
Raw corn Koji can be preserved by dehydration at
41 °C without any apparent detrimental effects.
Nevertheless, shelf-life studies are needed to determine
stability of the crude amylases.
References
1. Balls, A. K. and S. Schwimmer. 1944. Digestion of raw starch.
Journal of Biological Chemistry. 156:203-211.
2. Blish, M. J., R. M. Sandstedt and D. K. Mecham. 1937.
Action of wheat amylases on raw wheat starch. Cereal Chemistry
14:605-628.
By-product value
Gluten meal t Crude oil,4: Total,
$/m^ $/m^
9.36 10.13 41.91
11.07 11.10 44.80
10.56 9.65 43.25
1915
 3. Brown, H. T. and J. Heron. 1879. Contributions to the history
of starch and its transformations. Journal of the Chemical Society
35:596-654.
4. Corman, J. and A. F. Langlykke. 1948. Action of mold
enzymes in starch saccharification. Cereal Chemistry 25:190-201.
5. Corn Refiners Association, Inc. 1982. Corn wet-milled feed
products. Washington, D.C.
6. Day, D. L. and T. H. Chen. 1980. Feedlot biogas as process
fuel for farm alcohol plants, p. 249-258. Proceedings of the
international symposium on biogas, microalgae and livestock wastes,
Taipei, Taiwan.
7. Doering, O. C , III. 1981. Economics of alternative fuels, p.
13-21. Proceedings of the alcohol and vegetable oil as alternative fuels
regional workshops, Peoria, IL.
8. Eveleigh, D. E. 1981. The microbiological production of
industrial chemicals. Scientific American 245(3): 155-178.
9. Garcia, A., Ill, J. R. Fischer and E. L. lannotti. 1982. Low
temperature hydrolysis for ethanol production. Paper No. 82-3598.
ASAE, St. Joseph, MI.
10. Hall, M. D. 1981. Energy alternatives and potential, p. 2-11.
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APPENDIX
Sample Calculation of Theoretical Ethanol Yield
Starch wt — [(45.3 g wet fermentation substrate corn x (1.0-0.135) g
dry corn/g wet corn) + (15.0 g wet Koji x (1.0-0.43) g dry Koji/g wet
Koji] X 0.70 g starch/g dry corn = 33.42 g
Theoretical ethanol wt = 33.42 g starch x 1.1 g dextrose/g starch x
0.51 g ethanol/g dextrose = 18.75 g
Theoretical yield = (17.09 g observed ethanol/18.75 g theoretical
ethanol) x 100% = 91.2%
TRANSACTIONS of the ASAE-1984