The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Jul. 03, 2001
Filed:
Jul. 02, 1999
Vijay Singh, North Wales, PA (US);
Steven R. Eckhoff, Mahomet, IL (US);
The Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois, Urbana, IL (US);
Abstract
A method of recovering corn coarse fiber by flotation, which features the use of a hydrocyclone, or other separating machinery, in which the specific gravity of the slurry contained therein has been increased to approximately 12-14 Baumé so that the corn coarse fiber is of a lighter density than the remainder of the slurry. Therefore, the corn coarse fiber can be separated from the remainder of the slurry because it floats to the top of the slurry. If the present pericarp recovery process is added to a modified dry-grind ethanol production line, a high value co-product (the pericarp) is added to the other co-products and the end-product of ethanol, which can all be sold, and the economic efficiency of the plant is increased. More specifically, the present invention provides a process for recovering corn coarse fiber including the steps of: soaking corn in water to loosen the attachments of various grain components therein to each other, degerminating the soaked corn to strip the corn coarse fiber and the germ away from the endosperm, recovering the germ, and recovering the corn coarse fiber by flotation.