Transactions of the American Institute of Chemical Engineers, 1913, Vol. 6 (Classic Reprint) - Hardcover

Excerpt from Transactions of the American Institute of Chemical Engineers, 1913, Vol. 6

The recovery of the gluten and the bran was an important step forward, but one of the most valuable parts of the corn was still allowed to go to waste, viz., the germ, which yields the oil. There was no incentive to recover it, since no one seemed to want the oil. Had it been produced on a large scale, there would not have been a market for it, although it was realized, even in' those early days, that a vegetable oil of the character of that obtained from corn must eventually become a valuable article of commerce; so it did, but it took many years of hard work to bring about this condition. Shortly before I entered the business, less than 15 years ago they had just started producing corn oil on a large scale but had no market for it - the oil went begging; that was a serious condition. The Chicago factory produced at that time about pounds of oil per day and selling as it did for less than 15 cents a gallon, the revenue from this production was but two hundred and fifty dollars. To-day the value of a gallon of corn oil is nearly 50 cents, and the amount of oil recovered from the same number of bushels as in the Chicago factory is worth This is not due altogether to the increased selling price, but also to the greater efficiency prevailing in the separation of the germ, and the extraction of the oil resulting in a yield three times larger than in the days of the Chicago factory. To-day the gross value of the oil recovered from one bushel of corn, together with that of the oil cake obtained as a by-product, is equivalent to 25 per cent of the purchase price of the corn.

The ingenuity of the chemical engineer did not stop there. The price of glycerine was rising steadily, hence the proposition suggested itself of separating the glycerine from the fatty acids. What this meant is evidenced when I recite that glycerine to-day sells at 18 cents per pound and corn oil at about 6'/z cents,'and that 100 pounds of corn oil yield twelve pounds of glycerine; the price of crude oil and fatty acid is substantially the same.

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