A system for continuous ethanol recovery in an ethanol plant includes a prefermenter receiving high solids corn slurry mash from the ethanol plant. A yeast source injects live yeast cells into the prefermenter, which converts sugar in the mash to ethanol and provides beer with a concentration of the ethanol as output. A prefermenter stripper is configured for receiving an outflow airstream and stripping ethanol and water from down-flowing beer. A yeast source injects live yeast cells from the ethanol plant into the prefermenter. The prefermenter converts sugar in the mash to ethanol and provides beer with a concentration of the ethanol as prefermenter output. The prefermenter stripper receives an upflowing airstream and strips ethanol and water from downflowing beer and leaves the top of the prefermenter stripper with ethanol-laden exhaust. A beer recirculation cooler cools the stripped beer using cooling tower water from the existing plant as a heat sink. A continuous ethanol recovery method includes live yeast cell injection, sugar conversion and ethanol and water stripping steps.

Apparatus for treating liquids, includes •a vapour inlet (201); •a vessel (202) for housing liquid, the vessel being in fluid communication with the vapour inlet; and, •a vapour outlet (204); configured such that in use •vapour from the vapour inlet passes into liquid housed in the vessel; and •liquid from the vessel can interact with material housed in a chamber (203) in fluid communication with the vessel; •vapour from the liquid can pass to the vapour outlet. The apparatus can be used in distilling spirits in particular gin or rum.

A system and method for continuous ethanol recovery from high solids corn slurry mash fermentation in an ethanol plant.

A system for redistilling alcohol includes a heating vessel configured to receive a continuous stream of liquid white spirit and vaporize the liquid white spirit and a flavor vessel in direct fluid communication with and downstream of the heating vessel. The flavor vessel houses various botanicals and allows the vaporized white spirit to passes over the botanicals, thereby vaporizing volatile compounds of the botanicals and flavoring the vaporized white spirit. The system further includes a condenser in fluid communication with and downstream of the flavor vessel to obtain a redistilled alcohol product. Methods of redistilling an alcohol are also provided.

A device is provided having a fermentation chamber having one or more inlets to receive a mixed stream to be fermented and an outlet to release fermented product; a distillation vessel surrounding the fermentation chamber having communication with the fermentation chamber outlet to receive fermented product to be distilled and a turbine located within the outlet of the fermentation chamber, the turbine having a rotor rotatable by force of flow of fermented product from the fermentation chamber to the distillation vessel, to generate electricity. A sidewall common to both the fermentation chamber and distillation vessel allows for heat transfer of heat generated from fermentation to the distillation vessel to heat the product to be distilled. A method of fermenting and distilling a product is also provided. The method involves receiving in a fermentation chamber a mixed stream to be fermented; transferring heat energy generated by fermentation to a distillation vessel surrounding the fermentation chamber; allowing pressurized fermented product to flow from the fermentation chamber into the distillation vessel via a turbine and rotating a rotor of the turbine by a force of flow of the fermented product to the distiller to generate electricity.

In one aspect of the invention, a method recovers oil from a concentrated byproduct, such as evaporated thin stillage formed during a dry milling process used for producing ethanol. The method includes forming a concentrate from the byproduct and recovering oil from the concentrate. The step of forming the concentrate may comprise evaporating the byproduct. Further, the step of separating the oil from the concentrate may comprise using a centrifuge and, in particular, a disk stack centrifuge. Other aspects of the invention include related methods and subsystems for recovering oil from thin stillage.

Apparatus for treating liquids, comprisesa vapour inlet (201); a vessel (202) for housing liquid, the vessel being in fluid communication with the vapour inlet; and, a vapour outlet (204); configured such that in usevapour from the vapour inlet passes into liquid housed in the vessel; andliquid from the vessel can interact with material housed in a chamber (203) in fluid communication with the vessel; vapour from the liquid can pass to the vapour outlet. The apparatus can be used in distilling spirits in particular gin or rum.

A device is provided having a fermentation chamber having one or more inlets to receive a mixed stream to be fermented and an outlet to release fermented product; a distillation vessel surrounding the fermentation chamber having communication with the fermentation chamber outlet to receive fermented product to be distilled and a turbine located within the outlet of the fermentation chamber, the turbine having a rotor rotatable by force of flow of fermented product from the fermentation chamber to the distillation vessel, to generate electricity. A sidewall common to both the fermentation chamber and distillation vessel allows for heat transfer of heat generated from fermentation to the distillation vessel to heat the product to be distilled. A method of fermenting and distilling a product is also provided. The method involves receiving in a fermentation chamber a mixed stream to be fermented; transferring heat energy generated by fermentation to a distillation vessel surrounding the fermentation chamber; allowing pressurized fermented product to flow from the fermentation chamber into the distillation vessel via a turbine and rotating a rotor of the turbine by a force of flow of the fermented product to the distiller to generate electricity.

The present invention belongs to the technology field of microbial fermentation of the sugar-containing raw materials for producing fuel ethanol. It specifically relates to a continuous separation device and process for producing fuel ethanol. The device is continuous distillation device, and is improvement of the distillation device in the prior art. The present invention utilizes a continuous ethanol separation process, which can make full use of fermentable sugar of the sweet sorghum straw (or sugar cane, sugar beet), increase ethanol yield, change the traditional mode of production, truly realize continuous ethanol separation process; and the waste materials produced in the procedure of distillation can be used either as fuel, or as animal feed, and this not only saves the cost, but also is greatly significant in environmental protection.

A system and method for producing food-grade ethanol from food waste. A method of producing ethanol or vodka from food waste includes the steps of selecting one or more sources of food waste, where each source is a restaurant, a bakery, a grocery store, a commercial kitchen, a food vendor, or a commercial food products manufacturer; receiving collected food waste from the source(s); removing unacceptable items from the collected food waste; and processing the hydrated food waste into a flowable slurry ready for fermentation and then distillation.