Biomass treatment of organic waste materials in fuel production processes to increase energy efficiency

Abstract

A method, system, apparatus and program extracts energy from organic residual materials produced by the manufacturing of biofuels. Energy is extracted from the biofuels residuals using anaerobic bioconversion to produce a fuel for use in the manufacturing process for producing synthetic biofuel or as an additional energy product for sale comprises: providing at least one bioconversion tank for conversion of organic waste material, the bioconversion tank containing an active biomass comprising at least one bacteria that decomposes organic material; providing at least one inlet to the bioconversion for organic material; a processor that receives and stores information on: the status of chemical oxygen demand of the active biomass; and the oxygen provision capability of any organic material that can be fed into the bioconversion tank through an inlet; a mass flow control system controlled by the processor which feeds at least one organic material through an inlet at a rate based at least in part upon the status of chemical oxygen demand in the bioconversion tank as recognized by the processor.

Description

RELATED APPLICATIONS DATA [0001] This application is a continuation-in-part of U.S. Provisional Patent Application Ser. No. 60 / 833,526, filed, Jul. 16, 2006, which is in turn a continuation-in-part of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11 / 126,433, filed Aug. 18, 2006, which claims priority from U.S. Provisional Application No. 60 / 709,313, filed Aug. 18, 2005.BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION [0002] 1. Field of the Invention [0003] The present invention relates to the field of material conversion, whether original materials or wastes, particularly organic waste streams from organic fuel synthetic procedures, such as ethanol production or biodiesel production, and the conversion of such waste and contaminants into an energy source (e.g., methane) by using processes (such as fermentation or other bacterially induced or controlled chemical modification) involving living organisms (Bioconversion), such as active or bacterial biomass to convert organic biofuel processing residuals into at least s...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

[0015] The disclosed technology relates to the field of renewable energy and particularly utilization of organic residuals resulting from the production of synthetic organic fuels. Additionally, the present technology relates to the improvement of the overall energy efficiency of the fuel making process so that the overall process becomes more energy efficient. Gaseous fuels created could additionally be sold as a product or converted to other useful forms of energy such as electricity.

Problems solved by technology

This further processing and refinement of residuals is energy intensive.

However, the energy balance figures include all of the costs associated with the further processing and refinement of the residuals of the biofuels synthetic procedures, such processing and refining being energy intensive reducing the net positive gain in energy (input versus output) substantially.

Pure biodiesel typically requires special treatment in cold weather, due to a high pour point.

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