Particularly, the market related to single-use products
such as cups, containers, transplanting-pots, cutlery,
etc., appears suitable for the applications of these types
of composites. In this paper, corn fibers, a by-product
of ethanol production of corn fermentation, have been
evaluated as fillers for foamed tray production. The
USA is the largest producer of ethanol from cereal
grains. Annual ethanol production from corn and wheat
is estimated to be in the order of 1.7 billion gallons/year,
and this volume is expected to increase further in the
future. After the fermentation and ethanol extraction
process, a large amount of corn fiber is left as a coproduct.
Corn fiber is an industrial name given to
the pericarp fraction of the corn kernel. Because of the
inefficiency in the milling process during removal of the
pericarp, some of the kernel endosperm is also removed.
This means that not only does corn fiber contain
pericarp, it also contains starch and protein from the
endosperm. Corn fiber is a fibrous material with 60%
residual moisture content. Its main use is in animal
feeds. The wet corn fibers are about $15 a ton, the dried
ground fibers (about 10 mesh) are about $50 a ton.