CORN/MAIZE PROCESSING

INTRODUCTION
Corn is one of the world's most versatile seed crops. Its botanical name is Zea mays. Corn is used as food and feed. Corn
can be processed into various food and feed ingredients, industrial products and alcoholic beverages.There are two modern
methods of milling of corns, dry milling and wet milling.

CORN PROCESSES
Processes that yield food and feed ingredients:

• Dry-grind ethanol processors

• Corn wet mills

• Corn dry mills

• Alkaline cook (snacks, tortillas)

CORN HARVEST AND STORAGE
Corn processors may receive corn directly from farms where it may be stored for days, months, or years.

They may also receive corn from elevators in their immediate area, or the corn might be shipped by truck or train to their
plants.

Storage and shipping conditions can affect feed safety.

FEED SAFETY RISK FACTORS

Factors that influence feed safety of corn:

• Weather and climate variability

• Temperature and moisture content in storage

• Co-mingling with other grains, with corn of lower quality, or with treated corn seed

• Transportation and storage system sanitation

POTENTIAL FEED SAFETY HAZARDS

Microbial Hazards

• Mycotoxins from fungi

• Flooded grain

Physical Hazards

• Non-grain material (glass, metal, wood, petroleum residue, animal excreta or carcasses)

Chemical Hazards

• Treated seed

• Antibiotic residue in by-products

COMMON OPERATIONS IN RECEIVING & STORAGE

CORN DRY MILLING

CORN DRY MILLING

▪ “Flour milling” for corn

▪ Progressive size separation

▪ Feed products

▪ Hominy feed (left over)

▪ Germ meal

▪ Breakfast cereals

▪ Brewing grits

▪ Corn meal

▪ Bran

CLEANING AND CONDITIONING

Cleaning

When corn is received at the mill, it is cleaned by both dry and wet process. Cleaning steps are sieving, separating particles
by shape and density and removing ferromagnetic metals by permanent magnets.
Conditioning

The cleaned corn is conditioned, which basically means that water is added and the moisture allowed to equilibrate within
the kernels.

A moisture content of 21% is considered optimal.

DEGERMINATION, DRYING AND COOLING

Degermination

The purpose of degerming is to remove hull, tip cap and germ and leave the endosperm into large grits.

Drying

The degermed product are to be dried to 15-18% moisture content for proper grinding and sifting. Drying is performed by
conventional rotary steam tube dryers.

Cooling

Counter-flow or cross flow rotary cooler can be used for cooling the dried products.

GRADING AND MILLING

Grading

Recovery of various primary products is the next step. The through-stock is sifted or classified by particle size and enters
into a conventional long reduction system having the function of removing bran and germ while releasing a maximum
amount of clean large grits.

Milling

The milling operation consists of the steps of grinding, sifting, classifying, purifying, aspirating and in some case, final drying.
The normal flow is through break rolls and then to sifters. The break rolls are followed by reduction roll which grind the
endosperm to the desired particle size.
CORN DRY MILLING

▪ Corn dry milling is a series of tempering, grinding and size reduction operations.

▪ The gravity table separators are part of repetitive steps whereby smaller and smaller particles pass through sieves
to yield hominy feed, grits, meal, and flour.

Roller Mill

Roller mill is a form of compression mill that uses a single, double, or triple cylindrical heavy wheel mounted horizontally
and rotated about their long axis either in opposing pairs or against flat plates, to crush or grind various materials. One of
the rollers is run by a motor and the others are rotated by friction as the material is drawn through the gap between the
rollers. Roller mills use the process of stress (which is applied by the rotating wheels) and attrition in milling of solids in
suspensions, pastes or ointments, and some solid materials. The rollers rotate at different speeds and the material is
sheared as it passes through the gap.

To obtain the desired particles size, the following should be controlled;

• The gap between the rollers

• The speed differential between the rolls

• Feed rate

The design of a roller mill differs depending upon its application and they are usually named according to the work they
perform e.g;

• Crackers – A mill used to crack grain or other types of friable materials.

• Flakers – Mills used to flake grains or other materials

• Grinders (Rollers mill grinders) – Roller mills that are used to grind in a feed mill.

• Crimpers – Roller mills that crimp grains

• Crimper – Crackers a roller mill that cracks and at the same time crimp grains.

• Crumbler – A roller mill specially designed for breaking up pellets into smaller particles.

Two variants of roller mill are recognized and they are;

a. Multiple or corrugated rollers

b. Ribbed or saw-toothed rollers.

ALKALINE COOKED CORN

▪ Alkaline cooking is the basis for Mexican and Native American corn flour products.

▪ “Nixtamalization”, a process whereby corn is cooked in a lime solution (calcium hydroxide) can improve flavor and the
digestibility of corn protein.

▪ Besides helping corn form a dough, nixtamalization improves flavor and digestibility of corn protein. Some sources cite
that nixtamalization can reduce the amount of fumonisin toxin, which is produced by Fusarium verticillioides, a fungus
that is commonly found in corn. Products are snack foods and tortillas.

▪ This process yields masa, the dough formed from alkaline cooked corn, for foods and hominy and corn screenings as
feed ingredients.

▪ The alkaline cooking process uses the whole corn and, as in dry milling, contaminants can be distributed across products.
The alkaline cook process does not produce a characteristic feed by-product. Any of the finished corn products can enter
the feed commodity market as a salvage food product, similar to bakery meal.

▪ Equipment will be similar to other types of corn processing, with the exception of the stone mill.

▪ Stone milling of corn is typical in the alkaline cook process and is sometimes used in dry milling for corn meal and flour
production. Follow the Instant Corn Masa link to see the production flow of Mexican-type Foods.
FUEL ETHANOL FERMENTATION

▪ Whole corn is ground to prepare it for the wet fermentation process. As ethanol is distilled off, the remaining solids
become “distillers grains.”

▪ Distillers grains vary in color and nutrient composition, depending on processing variations plant to plant. For
example, some plants remove corn oil from the distillers grains. Drying temperatures can change the color. Some
distillers grains are pelleted.

▪ Within the dried distillers grains feed product, expect to see variation in color and texture and in nutrient content.
Though distillers grains are made from corn, the treatment of the material after the fermentation step will result
in differences in appearance (i.e., drying temperatures, oil removal). Like other feeds, distillers grains may be
pelleted.
CORN WET MILLING

▪ The main purpose of wet milling of corn is separation into 4 components:

▪ Starch

▪ Germ

▪ Fiber

▪ Gluten

▪ The main constituents of maize are starch, protein, the fiber-containing bran, and its oil-rich germ.

▪ The actual wet milling is preceded by grain cleaning and steeping steps and then makes use of sieving and density
based separations in an aqueous environment to subsequently isolate germ, bran, protein, and starch.
Wet milling uses mills, screens, tanks, dryers and evaporators similar to some other milling operations
RAW MATERIAL & STEEPING
Raw Material

▪ Maize used for starch production should not have been dried at excessively high temperatures, as heat-damaged
kernels lead to greatly reduced yields of starch.

▪ Before being used in the actual starch-isolation process, the maize is subjected to cleaning steps similar to those used
in dry milling

Steeping

▪ In the first step, the maize is submerged or steeped industrially in tanks .

▪ The steeping system normally uses a countercurrent battery of about 10 tanks, with the maize moving from tank 1
to tank 10 and the steeping water from tank 10 to tank 1.

▪ The temperature is controlled at 48–52°C, and the steep time varies from 30 to 50 hrs.

▪ As a result of steeping, the kernel contains about 45% moisture and is softened sufficiently .

Role of Sulfur Dioxide

▪ The steeping water contains 0.1–0.2% sulfur dioxide,

▪ It is used for two reasons:

✓ First, it aids in stopping the growth of putrefactive organisms.

✓ Second, the bisulfite ion reacts with disulfide bonds in the matrix proteins of the maize and reduces the average
molecular weight of the proteins, making them more soluble.

Development of Lactobacilli

▪ Although sulfur dioxide slows the growth of putrefactive organisms, it does not stop certain lactobacilli.

▪ The maize itself appears to be the source of the organisms, and steeping at 45–55°C favors their development.

▪ It appears to have only a minor effect on the softening of the maize kernel.

▪ Perhaps its major effect is to lower the pH and stop the growth of other organisms. In addition, its effect on the pH
facilitates the separation of protein from starch

COARSE MILLING AND GERM RECOVERY

▪ After steeping, the softened grain is coarsely ground in water by an attrition mill.

▪ The mill breaks the grain and frees the germ, which, as a result of steeping, is swollen and rubbery and can be
recovered as an intact entity.

▪ Two passes through the mill may be needed to free the germ, after which it is separated from the remainder of the
kernel with a liquid cyclone separator, or hydroclone.

▪ Hydrocyclones are more unique to this process and used first in germ separation and again to separate starch from
endosperm protein.
▪ They separate components of varying weight by centrifugal force.

▪ Hydrocyclones are used to separate corn germs from the kernel fractions and again to separate pure starch from
the endosperm protein. The feed by-products, germ meal, gluten feed and gluten meal are produced earlier in the
process from germ and endosperm proteins and fiber.

▪ The hydroclone works in water on the same principle as a cyclone separator does in air; thus, the separation is
based on density.

▪ The germ has a lower density because of its oil content.

▪ The recovered germ is washed free of adhering starch and dried.

▪ It is then used to produce oil

SIEVING, FINE MILLING, AND FIBER RECOVERY

▪ After removal of the germ, the remaining material is sieved to remove the larger particles.

▪ These larger and coarser particles, mainly from the hard, horny endosperm, are ground again, using stone or steel
burr mills or an impact mill.

▪ The objective is to free the starch, protein, and fiber from each other. The bran tends to stay in larger pieces and
is removed by sieving.

▪ Generally, the fiber is given a series of screenings on various-sized screens and is washed to remove adhering starch.
The fiber is retained on screen and starch-gluten slurry is passed through.

PROTEIN AND STARCH RECOVERY

▪ The major stream contains the protein and starch in water.

▪ Because the starch is denser than the protein, they can be separated from each other with large continuous
centrifuges or with additional hydroclones.

▪ The less dense maize gluten, containing 60–70% protein on a dry basis, is dewatered by centrifuges and then dried.
It is a valuable co-product used as an animal feed.

▪ The starch still contains too much protein (about 1%) at this point and must be purified by renewed centrifugation
or with hydroclones.

▪ Then starch in purified form is obtained.

Disc Mill

▪ The grinding parts are available in hardened steel cast, manganese steel, hardmetal tungsten carbide and zirconium
oxide to prevent undesired abrasion.

▪ Grinding sets are available in various steel types, hardmetal tungsten carbide, agate and zirconium oxide to prevent
undesired abrasion.

▪ Types of Disc Mills:

✓ Single – Wheeled disc mill: One disc spins along a base to grind items.

✓ Double – Wheeled disc mill: It crushes items by grinding them between two interconnected plates.

✓ Vibrating disc mill: They use high-speed vibration to separate items after they have been crushed or ground.

WET MILLING OVERVIEW AND BENEFITS

▪ The Corn wet-milling process is designed to extract the highest use and value from each component of the corn kernel.
The process begins with the corn kernels being soaked in large tanks called steep tanks in a dilute aqueous sulfur dioxide
solution. The softened kernel is then processed to remove the germ which is further processed to remove the high-value
corn oil. The Germ Meal remaining after the oil is extracted and marketed for animal feed use.

▪ Following germ removal, the remaining kernel components are screened to remove the fiber. The fiber is combined with
the evaporated, concentrated and dried steep liquor and other co-product streams to produce Corn Gluten Feed. The
starch and gluten protein subsequently pass through the screens and the starch-gluten slurry is sent to centrifugal
separators where the lighter gluten protein and the heavier starch are separated. The gluten protein is then
concentrated and dried to produce Corn Gluten Meal, a 60% protein feed.

▪ Some of the starch is then washed and dried or modified and dried. These starch products are marketed to the food,
paper, and textile industries. The remaining starch can be processed into products such as sweeteners or ethanol. An
average bushel of corn yields 31.5 lbs. of Starch, 12.5 lbs. of Gluten Feed, 2.5 lbs. of Gluten Meal and 1.6 lbs. of Corn Oil.

▪ While the wet milling process is capital intensive with higher operating costs, the ability to produce a variety of products
can be valuable in dealing with volatile markets. The wet milling process results in slightly lower ethanol yields than a
traditional dry milling process since some of the fermentable starch exits the process attached to the saleable co-
products.