Distribution of phosphorus compounds in corn processing

Distillers dried grains with solubles (DDGS) and corn gluten feed (CGF) are major coproducts of ethanol production from corn dry grind and wet milling facilities, respectively. These coproducts contain important nutrients, nevertheless, high levels of phosphorus (P). About 50–80% of the P in these products is in an organically bound form known as phytate. The phytate P in these products cannot be digested by nonruminant animals. Consequently, large quantities of phytate are deposited into the soil with the animal wastes which potentially could cause P pollution in soil and underground water resources. As regulations on the concentration of P material in ethanol production coproducts become more restrictive, measures need to be taken for effective extraction of phytate P from the coproducts to make these processes more environmentally compatible. Proper marketing of coproducts is critical to the overall economy of ethanol production facilities. In this study, distribution of P compounds in different streams of dry grind and wet milling operations was determined. In the dry grind process, the highest P concentration was found to be in the condensed distillers solubles (CDS) at about 1.34 wt.% (db). About 59% of P in this stream was in phosphates form. The highest concentration of P in the wet milling process was found in the light steep water at about 3.4 wt.% (db). In this stream, about 22% of P was attributed to phosphates.