Syngest will gasify the cob and leave the corn to be used for food production. Syngest Inc. is using gasification technology to eliminate the use of the nutrient portion of a corn cob i.e. the corn kernels. With the ever increasing pressure to move away from using corn to produce ethanol, gasification specialists are experimenting with gasfiying the corn cob. The corn kernels would still be used a source of food, but the cob, long considered a waste product, is being considered as a feedstock for gasification.

Syngest has developed a gasification plant that will gasify corn cobs and produce ammonia as an final product. The SynGest Menlo plant will use 150,000 tons of locally supplied corn cobs per year to manufacture 50,000 tons of bio-ammonia annually, enough to fertilize 500,000 acres of nearby Iowa farmland under corn.

It’s an ideal situation. The fertilizer will be used to grow corn and the corn cobs will be used to produce fertilizer. This is a perfect scenario for proponents of sustainable engineering. Purdue University has been researching the use of corn cobs as a feedstock for gasification.