The invention relates to a process for treating an alcoholic feedstock, comprising: a) a stage of preheating of said alcoholic feedstock to a temperature of between 70? C. and 200? C.; b) a stage of pretreatment on an acidic solid, operating at a temperature of between 70? C. and 200? C., to produce a pretreated alcoholic feedstock; c) a stage of partial vaporization to produce a vaporized stream and a liquid stream; and d) a stage of purification of the liquid stream resulting from stage c), to give a stream rich in water, a stream rich in monoalcohol and a stream rich in impurities.

An improvement which reduces the reflux requirement for a fractional distillation system of an alcohol production plant (40, 60, 70, 80). The improvement includes a mixing device (44) for combining a water/alcohol mixture having an enhanced alcohol content (50, 62, 72, 82) with the reflux liquid (16) in the absence of a vapor/liquid equilibrium interface to form a reflux mixture (56) for supply to the rectifier column (14). The mixture having an enhanced alcohol content may be sourced from a location along the rectifier-reflux vapor to liquid system flow path, or from another source.

Improvements in grain alcohol distillation plants by incorporating a novel internal arrangement in the wort column and the rectifying column with distributors and accumulators inside thereof, achieving a stable and safe process in wide ranges of operation, guaranteeing the productivity of the plant and the quality of the products. The wort column features detachable perforated plates, easy to access and clean through manholes. By having easily detachable plates and, also, a manhole for each plate with holder type connections, the access to the interior of the column for cleaning and maintenance purposes is facilitated. The rectifying column is a special filling column with flow distributors, it has an intermediate alcohol accumulator and a condenser which is an integral part of the column that prevents the use of pumps. The arrangement of distributors and accumulators within the rectifying column favors the operational stability of the plant, allowing a low scale equipment to work similarly to an industrial scale column. The improvements include an integrated automation system with Internet communication for self-management of the plant with remote monitoring and autonomous operation.

A dry-milling process for the production of dried distiller's grains with solubles (DDGS) includes the steps of dry-milling corn kernels to form a corn flour comprising corn fiber; combining the corn flour with water to form a mash; separating the corn fiber from the mash; treating the separated corn fiber with a composition; combining the treated corn fiber with the mash having the corn fiber separated therefrom to form a slurry; fermenting the slurry to produce beer and carbon dioxide; distilling the beer to produce ethanol and whole stillage; and processing the whole stillage to produce DDGS. The composition includes an alkanesulfonic acid, water, an enzyme, and optionally a surfactant.

Biomass feedstocks (e.g., plant biomass, animal biomass, and municipal waste biomass) are processed to produce useful products, such as fuels. For example, systems are described that can convert feedstock materials to a sugar solution, which can then be fermented to produce ethanol. Biomass feedstock is saccharified in a vessel by operation of a jet mixer, the vessel also containing a liquid medium and a saccharifying agent.

This disclosure describes methods to separate solids from liquids in a production facility. A process separates components in a defiber process stream by using two or more mechanical devices to separate the solids from the liquids based on density differences. The process produces animal feed products having a protein content ranging from approximately 45% to approximately 64%.

A distillation and dehydration system is provided that produces an anhydrous organic solvent. The provided system includes vapor recompression (e.g., a mechanical or thermal vapor recompression unit) to recover heat from a rectification-distillation section (e.g., a rectifier/stripper column). The addition of vapor recompression enables further heat recovery within a stream by increasing the condensation temperature and pressure of that stream and later using its latent heat by condensing it.

A process for forming a fuel or a fuel intermediate using three fermentations includes treating a feedstock to obtain a fermentable carbohydrate, conducting a first fermentation to ferment the fermentable carbohydrate to fermentation product, obtaining biogas produced from a second fermentation that includes anaerobic digestion, and conducting a third fermentation to ferment a gas to produce fermentation product, where the gas contains one or more components obtained or derived from the biogas. An aqueous stream containing fermentation product produced in the third fermentation is used within the process.

A process is provided for forming a fuel or a fuel intermediate from two fermentations that includes feeding an aqueous solution comprising a fermentation product from a first bioreactor to a second bioreactor and/or a stage upstream of the second bioreactor, which also produces the fermentation product. The aqueous solution may be added at any stage of the second fermentation and/or processing steps upstream from the second bioreactor that would otherwise require the addition of water. Accordingly, the product yield is increased while fresh/treated water usage is decreased.

Method of and system for producing the highest concentration of a syrup (e.g., 80% dry matter) using a dry milling process are provided, which include (a) using backend grinding steps and devices for grinding thin stillage, (b) using a clean thin stillage system with two-disc centrifuges and two protein decanters, (c) adding an enriched syrup back to the syrup or evaporator, and (d) splitting two dryers into two independent parallel dryers using one dryer as a protein dryer and the other as a DDG dryer for producing DDGS.