Technical Abstract: Methods have been proposed recently to separate germ from corn prior to fermentation to improve dry grind ethanol process economic return. Oil would be extracted from the germ and sold as a separate product. It is not clear that available methods to extract oil from this germ are economically practical. Corn germ was preheated in a microwave oven and oil was then extracted with a bench-scale press. Preheating improved the yield obtained for the press used and allowed prediction of optimum conditions obtainable by larger presses. Microwave heating appeared to heat oil in the germ more quickly than the other components of the germ, as indicated by microscopic inspection of heated germ specimens. Less oil could be pressed from germ initially containing 3-6% moisture than germ containing 15-20% moisture. For the wetter germ, oil recovery generally increased with increased microwave heating time until the heated germ moisture reached 6%. A maximum oil recovery of about 65% was obtained for all germs tested when the optimum expeller temperature/germ feed moisture was used. For a commercial expeller moisture would be added to minimize cooling of the expeller. Using the maximum oil recovery from the pressing experiments a commercial cost for expressed corn oil can be estimated from soy oil plants. The cost advantage of a larger pressing facility recommends pressing the germ output of several dry grind ethanol plant of average size. Feasibility of expelling germ from several plants is not endangered by the likely necessity of drying the germ for temporary storage since we found that rehydrating germ that had been dried to optimum moisture for pressing did not reduce pressed oil yield.