High Fermentable Corn Hybrids for the Dry-Grind Corn Ethanol Industry

Abstract

The biofuel corn ethanol helps provide a sustainable and secure non-petroleum source of energy. The dry-grind ethanol industry is the customer for about one-third of US-produced corn grain. Getting the most ethanol from sourced corn grain is important to the economics of a commercial ethanol plant. Near infrared transmittance spectroscopy (NIT), backed by calibrations built with robust reference chemistry, is used to predict the fermentability of whole corn grain. Ethanol yield predicted by NIT has been shown to be highly correlated with commercial ethanol yield. High fermentable corn hybrids identified using NIT have been designated by commercial seed producers and made available to corn growers. The combination of a robust, commercially validated NIT calibration and a rigorous corn hybrid designation process has been used to identify high fermentable corn hybrids to enable higher ethanol yields for the dry-grind ethanol industry.