UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 



BULLETIN No. 904 



Contribution from the Bureau of Plant Industry 

 WM. A. TAYLOR, Chief 



j&rQmfu 



Washington, D. C. 



PROFESSIONAL PAPER 



October 29, 1920 



THE PRODUCTION AND UTILIZATION OF CORN OIL 

 IN THE UNITED STATES. 



By A. F. Sievers, 

 Chemical Biologist, Drug, Poisonous, and Oil Plant Investigations. 



CONTENTS. 



Origin of the corn-oil industry 1 



Degeiminating corn 1 



Methods of degermination used 3 



Expelling the oil from corn germs 3 



Handling and disposing of the crude oil 11 



Handling and disposing of the oilcake 12 



Buying and shipping corn germs 13 



Utilization of corn oil 13 



Effect of color and condition of the corn on the 



yield and character of the oil 15 



Comparison of the oil-production operation in 



different mills 16 



Economics of corn-oil production 17 



Cost of expelling corn oil 17 



Production of edible oil 20 



The future of corn oil ^2 



ORIGIN OF THE CORN-OIL INDUSTRY. 



The production of corn oil from the germ of corn kernels has been 

 practiced on a commercial scale for probably a quarter of a century. 

 From the time the degermination of corn became an integral operation 

 in the hominy, starch, and glucose industries, the disposition of the 

 germ has been a decided factor in the economics of these processes. 

 At first the general practice was to dispose of the germ material by 

 adding it to feed products, but as the demand for vegetable oils 

 increased, for both edible and technical uses, it was found profitable 

 to expel the oil from the germ, and in recent years when oils have 

 been high in price the production of corn oil has become one of the 

 important phases of the corn-products industries. 



DEGERMINATING CORN. 



The germ of the corn represents approximately 10 per cent of the 

 dry kernel and contains about 50 per cent of oil. It has been found 

 that this amount of fat, representing about 5 per cent of the air-dried 



2467°— 20 1 



