Corn has been called America’s “green gold” — the country’s largest and most valuable field crop.

America’s corn, roughly 80 percent of it, feeds livestock here and abroad, in Japan, Taiwan and Korea. But corn also goes into more than 3,500 food and industrial products — from peanut butter to packing peanuts, from fuel to pharmaceuticals. And corn is exploding with new uses that some say could double the value of America’s green gold in the next decade.

U.S. farmers grow nearly half the world’s corn, last year producing some nine billion bushels worth more than $20 billion. Minnesota ranks fourth in production behind Iowa, Illinois and Nebraska. In 1997, Minnesota farmers harvested nearly ten percent of the nation’s crop.

Refining is the fastest growing segment of the corn market, using 1.8 billion bushels per year. Refineries separate corn into its component parts — starch, oil, protein and fiber — and convert the components to higher value products.

Today, major value-added corn products include sweeteners, ethanol and starch. Starch is used to thicken foods and make literally thousands of products from glue, detergents, paper, antibiotics and ink to batteries and fireworks.

Over the past 10 years, corn products edging into commercialization have included biodegradable packing peanuts, biopolyer plastics, cleaning products, environmentally friendly antifreeze, road de-icers and nutraceuticals.

Minnesota companies are among the leaders in bringing new uses for corn to market. AURI has worked with many entrepreneurs, helping to move products such as cornstalk animal bedding, oil-absorbent corn mats, corn-fiber paper, cornstarch packing materials, corn cleaners, even corn-resin dog bones into the market.

Here’s a quick overview of the most promising uses for America’s greenest gold.

Burning clean
ETHANOL

Ethanol, a clean-burning fuel, is the leading new use for corn. Yet ethanol itself is not new. The Model T Ford ran on ethanol. What is new is the recent dramatic growth in ethanol production.

Since 1977, there has been a twentyfold increase in the use of corn for ethanol. Fuel ethanol now consumes seven percent of the U.S. corn crop. That’s nearly 600 million bushels of corn a year — up from 30 million just 20 years ago. Ethanol processing, which doubles corn’s value, added $4.5 billion in farm revenue last year, according to the USDA.

In Minnesota, ethanol is a growing value-added market for corn farmers, who own nine of the state’s 12 milling operations. Two more grower-owned mills are under construction. During the year ended last June, Minnesota mills used 50 million bushels of corn to produce 124 million gallons of ethanol — almost triple the state’s output just four years ago.

It’s still not enough to meet the current demand. More than 95 percent of the gasoline sold in the state is blended with ethanol, making Minnesota the second largest ethanol user after Illinois.

“The potential market for ethanol is tremendous,” says Al Cotter, a corn grower from Hutchinson and a member the National Corn Growers Association Business Development Action Team. He says it would take all the nation’s excess stocks to produce enough ethanol for a 10 percent blend with all gasoline.

Ethanol fuel cells for powering electric motors are at the development stage. “This could be another huge market,” Cotter says. “Fuel cells — I think that’s where ethanol’s future lies.”

Corny plastic
POLYLACTIC ACID POLYMERS

Starch polymers from corn have begun to replace standard plastics in a wide range of products — loosefill packing peanuts, clothing fibers, leaf bags, disposable cutlery, even dog bones and golf tees.

Several Minnesota companies are working to commercialize corn-based plastics. StarchTech, Inc. of Golden Valley manufactures packing peanuts and resins for injection molding from corn and wheat starch. The company makes dog bones and a variety of other products (see grains section, page 8, for more on StarchTech).

Another Minnesota-based company, Cargill Dow Polymers, manufactures polylactic acid polymers from fermented corn sugar. The company’s Minneapolis plant makes about six million pounds of PLA polymers; by mid-1999, the company expects to boost output to 20 million, says President Jim Stoppert. The company will construct a world-scale, 300 million-pound PLA facility by 2001.

Although PLA is still in development, Stoppert says Cargill Dow Polymers is working with manufacturers worldwide to fine-tune applications in food packaging, rigid containers, and fibers for athletic clothing and carpets. On both performance and cost, PLA polymers “are expected to compete with hydrocarbon-based thermoplastics.”

Just scrubbed
CLEANERS AND WASHER FLUID

Corn, a longtime substitute for phosphate in detergents, is finding its way into a variety of new cleaning products.

For example, Aquinas, Inc., a St. Louis company, makes America’s Solution, a bright green, corn-based windshield washer fluid. Traditional windshield cleaners are derived from coal or gas.

In Minnesota, farmer-owned Producers Renewable Products makes Harvest Bright soap and household cleaners. The corn-based products include glass cleaner, tub and tile scrub, wood oil soap and liquid body soap. Harvest Bright’s corn connection is clear: it comes in corn cob-shaped bottles.

Harvest Bright sales began last summer with direct-mail marketing to Midwest farmers who produce the ingredients. Eventually, Harvest Bright will be in farm supply and retail stores, too, says Kevin Lewis, PRP chief operating officer.

Corn to your health
RIBOSE PRODUCTION

Bioenergy, Inc., of Ham Lake, Minn., makes a rare heart and muscle nutrient called ribose, a type of sugar that helps the body restore energy levels in muscle tissue. Until now, ribose production has been extremely costly. Bioenergy developed an economical process for making ribose from corn syrup.

Founded by Dr. John Foker, a pediatric heart surgeon at the University of Minnesota, Bioenergy raised $1.75 million last year in investment capital, according to financial officer Ross Boerhave. In November, the company began manufacturing ribose for the dietary supplement market. Approved by the FDA, the supplements are distributed by Austin-based Hormel Foods Corporation.

The company has begun clinical trials at the University of Maryland, Baltimore, to determine effective oral dosages of ribose and will start clinical trials on intravenous applications next year.

No slip-slidin’
ROAD DE-ICER

Safer and less corrosive than salt, corn-based road de-icers are a promising use for corn residue, a low-value coproduct of milling. In Minnesota, two grower cooperatives are commercializing this use.

Minnesota Corn Processors, a grower-owned wet mill in Marshall, makes Ice Ban, a blend of corn steepwater and distillers residue. The dark brown liquid is mixed with magnesium chloride and sprinkled on roads to inhibit ice, says Steve Bytnar, MCP technical services representative. Corn Plus, an ethanol co-op in Winnebago, is also making a corn de-icer from the coproducts of dry milling.

Corn de-icers are far less corrosive than standard salt de-icers, Bytnar says. “That’s one of the huge benefits — it won’t eat away at bridges, overpasses and equipment.” Corn de-icer is also safer than salt for vegetation and surface water, says Steve Core, manager of Corn Plus. “You could eat the stuff.”

Although corn de-icer costs roughly twice as much as salt, “It costs a lot to replace corroded bridges, too,” says Paul Keranen, director of maintenance research for the Minnesota Department of Transportation, which is testing both corn de-icers this winter. If the products are effective in field tests, Keranen says, “we will definitely look at it for sensitive areas — big bridges, especially.”

It’s in the genes …

The future of corn lies in its genetic code, says Christine Nieland of the National Corn Growers Association.

Last fall, Congress funded the Plant Genome Initiative, a $40 million research project facilitated by the National Science Foundation to identify and map the genes of several key plants, including corn.

“Imagine the progress we’ll make once we have identified the genes responsible for each trait,” says Gene Fynboh, a farmer from Stevens County who serves on the Minnesota Corn Research and Promotion Council and the National Corn Board.

The pioneering research is expected to boost corn production 20 percent within a decade, returning $4 billion a year to the economy, according to NCGA estimates. Gene mapping will also speed the development of corn hybrids for specific industrial uses, such as ethanol, chemical processing and plastic.

Corn genetics will transform the livestock industry — the corn grower’s most important market, says Martin County farmer Gerald Tumbleson, Minnesota Corn Growers president and National Corn Board member. “There will be different kinds of corn for chickens and cows and pigs, and even for different stages in an animal’s life, to make them grow better.” The NCGA estimates improvements in feed corn could be worth more than $800 million a year at the farm gate.

Over time, Gene Fynboh says, big supplies of America’s green gold will stimulate even more new uses. “Anything you can make out of petroleum, you can make out of corn. That gives us a lot of opportunities.”