Starch and cellulose derivatives
Starch milled from maize, cassava, wheat and potato, its modified forms and sugars, plus cellulose ethers; a $45 billion maize-starch industry and a bio-based workhorse.
Bio-based chemicals · Bio-based polymers & platforms · No. 117
- Product family
- Feedstock: Crops and biomass
- maize starch and derivatives about 84.5 Mt (2023); native starch about 60 Mt (derived: food 42 Mt at 70.1%); cellulose derivatives not published
- HS 350510, 391231
The same maize starch thickens your custard, glues cardboard boxes and feeds the vats that brew bioplastics.
Chart: Illustration: Starch and cellulose derivatives
Where it comes from
Chart: Map of where it comes from
Maize is soaked for 30-50 hours, then ground and spun apart into starch, gluten, fibre and germ; cassava is simply rasped and washed.
Three things to know
- India has 5.8-6.5 Mt a year of starch capacity and held a 14.3% share of world maize starch exports in 2022.
- Starch makes up about two-thirds of a maize kernel, and the gluten, fibre and germ pay back much of the cost.
- Cellulose cousins such as CMC and HPMC come from wood pulp or cotton linters and do similar thickening jobs.
The journey
- 1 CropsMaize, cassava, wheat and potatoes
- 2 Wet millingSteeped 30-50 hours, split into starch, gluten
- 3 ModificationHeat or chemicals tailor gels and charge
- 4 HydrolysisEnzymes make glucose syrups, dextrose, sorbitol
- 5 UsesFood, paper, textiles, pills, fermentation