Processes and systems are provided to compress vapors produced in distillation and recover the heat of condensation through vapor compression and to derive mechanical, thermal, and electrical energy from a combined heat and power system, while maintaining the plant's original ability to operate. The plant's existing distillation system, steam generation, and electrical demand determine the design basis for the retrofit system that is targeted at an optimized combination of energy usage, energy cost, and environmental impact. Vapor compression (by mechanical vapor recompression and/or thermal vapor recompression) minimizes the total energy usage. Optionally, combined heat and power provides a means of converting energy between fuel, electricity, and thermal energy in a manner that best complements plant requirements and energy economics and minimizes inefficiencies and energy losses.

A method for removing one or more congeners from an alcoholic composition, including placing a quantity of an alcoholic composition in a pressure-controllable environment, decreasing the pressure of the pressure-controllable environment, removing one or more unwanted congeners from the alcoholic composition to yield a purified alcoholic composition, and removing the purified alcoholic composition from the pressure-controllable environment.

A system and method for washing and separating fiber in the processing of grains in between the steps of fermentation and distillation is disclosed. Also disclosed is a method for producing a high protein feed.

A method for rehabilitating alcohol, including placing a quantity of ethanol solution in a pressure-controllable environment, decreasing the pressure of the pressure-controllable environment to about 25 Torr, holding the pressure of the pressure-controllable environment at about 25 Torr for a first predetermined period of time, removing unwanted congeners, such as ethyl acetate, from the ethanol solution to yield a treated ethanol solution, and removing treated solution from the pressure-controllable environment.

A method for producing an ethanol solution includes obtaining, from a starting liquid, a liquid feed having less than by weight of constituents and having 3% to 25% by weight of ethanol, supplying the liquid feed to a feed stream inlet of a reverse osmosis separation system having a first pass, wherein (i) each pass has an reverse osmosis membrane filtration unit, each membrane filtration unit having an ethanol rejection percentage of between 50% to 99%, and (ii) each pass has the feed stream inlet for a feed stream, a permeate stream outlet for a permeate stream, and a retentate stream outlet for a retentate stream, operating the system to maintain pressure in one of the membrane filtration units in a range of 1,200 to 4,000 psi, and obtaining retentate that is enriched with ethanol, the retentate differs from the starting liquid by absence of the removed constituents.

An assembly for rehabilitating alcohol, including a pressure controllable chamber, a cooler in thermal communication with the pressure controllable chamber, a liquid inlet port in fluidic communication with the pressure controllable chamber, a liquid outlet port in fluidic communication with the pressure controllable chamber, and a gas outlet port in fluidic communication with the pressure controllable chamber. The assembly further includes a partial vacuum source in fluidic communication with the gas outlet port for establishing a partial vacuum in the pressure controllable chamber, and a liquid collection vessel in fluidic communication with the liquid outlet port. The residence time from when a liquid is flowed into the pressure controllable chamber until the liquid exits the chamber is no more than sixty seconds. The partial vacuum is insufficient to evaporate an ethanol solution during residence time in the pressure controllable chamber.

A crystalline pigment or colorant composition having high color intensity and/or low sugar content, and methods and processes of preparation. The composition may comprise purified fruit and/or vegetable color juices.

The present disclosure provides a two-step liquefication (e.g., using a high (>23 Be) and a low Be (<5 Be) liquid media) process in a dry milling process/plant. The dry milling process comprises liquifying starch from milled corns making a liquefied starch slurry in a first liquefication tank having a slurry >23 Be, performing a first solid/liquid separation using a first paddle screen after the liquifying starch, soaking, cooking, or degrading protein in a second liquefication tank with a slurry <5 Be, and performing a second solid/liquid separation using a second paddle screen after the soaking, cooking, or degrading protein in a second liquefication tank.

A crystalline pigment or colorant composition having high color intensity and/or low sugar content, and methods and processes of preparation. The composition may comprise purified fruit and/or vegetable color juices.

Non-naturally occurring microorganisms are provided that produce C40 carotenoid compound(s), utilizing exogenously added enzyme activities. Methods of producing C40 carotenoid compounds in microbial cultures, and feed and nutritional supplement compositions that include the C40 carotenoid compounds produced in the microbial cultures, are also provided.