The conventional dry milling process of corn does not often convert all of the starch to available sugars which can then be fermented to ethanol. In order to improve ethanol yields, a team of scientists at the Iowa State University, led by David Grewell, are integrating ultrasonics into dry corn milling. Ultrasound (high frequency sound waves) is applied to the corn mash and cavitation (rapid collapse of gas bubbles) in the liquid causes the break-up of corn particles into much finer sizes. This exposes more of the starch to the enzymes responsible for the degradation of the starch to simple sugars. The increase in the conversion of starch to simple sugars results in increased activity of ethanol fermentation. Laboratory experiments have shown that after ultrasonic treatment, the original corn particle size was reduced 50-fold. Reduction in corn particle size exposes more surface area for enzymatic attack, resulting in a 30% increase in the rate of sugars (enzymatically) released from the corn starch. A patent application for the technology has been filed..