Another use for corn stover is as fuel for bioenergy or as feedstock for bioproducts. It can be burned in furnaces to yield energy that steam turbines convert to electricity. It also has potential for cellulosic ethanol (biomass ethanol), which is “ethanol made from non-grain plant materials known as biomass.”[5] However, with current technology, a large part of the biofuel potential of cellulose is wasted due to the strength of the glycosidic bonds that pair chains of D-glucose units. But if the commercialization of cellulosic ethanol advances enough technologically, biomass ethanol production would use the corn stover from the corn crop produced in areas around ethanol plants. Corn stover, due to the relative close proximity of the corn grain produced for ethanol production, “is by far the most abundant crop residue readily available today.”[5] The free accessibility to corn stover makes it a prime candidate for biomass ethanol production. A new DuPont facility in Nevada, Iowa, is expected to generate 30 million gallons annually of cellulosic biofuel produced from corn stover residues. It opened in 2015, with full production provisionally delayed until 2017.
Reference 1: WT% dry[9].
Reference 2: Cellulose/glucan, Xylan, Arabinan, Mannan, Galactan, Lignin, Ash, Acetate and Protein.
Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corn_stover
Reference 2: Cellulose/glucan, Xylan, Arabinan, Mannan, Galactan, Lignin, Ash, Acetate and Protein.
Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corn_stover
