Effects of drying temperatures and storage conditions on the levels of lipids and starches in corn grains for yield ethanol industry

Abstract

Post-harvest operations can reduce changes in the physical-chemical quality of processed grains. Thus, this study aimed to evaluate the effects of drying and storage conditions on the lipids and starches content in corn grains correlating ethanol production. In the results obtained, the adjustment of the drying curves associated with physical analyses made it possible to verify that the increase in temperature affected the grains’ cell tissues and reduced lipids, starches, and the industrial yield of ethanol for 0.032 L kg⁻¹ of grains. Besides, the corn storage under refrigeration was favorable to maintaining the levels of lipids (+1.42%), starch (+1.33%), and ethanol yield (+0.017 L kg⁻¹ of grains). In conclusion, the drying temperature at 40 °C and the controlled storage at 15 °C preserved the corn grain quality over the six months and positively influenced the grain processing quality. The adverse environmental conditions associated with the post-harvest technologies do not guarantee the quality of the corn grains used for the processing industry. In the current Brazilian situation, the corn ethanol industry improvement involves the application of low temperature in drying systems and the storage of corn in controlled environments.

Keywords:

• Bioethanol
• losses reduction
• post-harvest
• processing
• Zea mays L

Acknowledgments

The authors thank CAPES (Coordination for the Improvement of Higher Education Personnel)-Financial Code 001, CNPq (National Council for Scientific Technological Development), Federal University of Santa Maria (UFSM), Research Group at Postharvest Innovation: Technology, Quality and Sustainability (UFSM), and FAPERGS-RS (Research Support Foundation of the State of Rio Grande do Sul) and Federal University of Mato Grosso do Sul (UFMS) for contributions in the research projects, laboratories for carrying out the experiments.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Availability of data

The authors declare that the data obtained in the research are available.

Author contributions

Methodology, P.C.C., M.T.N. and S.D.C.B.

Formal analysis, P.C.C. and P.E.T.

Investigation, P.C.C., M.T.N., L.J.C. and S.D.C.B.

Field experiment conduction, P.C.C., M.T.N., L.J.C. and S.D.C.B.

Statistical Analysis, P.C.C. and P.E.T.

Writing-original draft preparation, P.C.C. and P.E.T.

Writing-review and editing, P.C.C. and P.E.T.