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Method and apparatus for production of bio-ethanol and other fermentation products

a technology of bioethanol and other fermentation products, applied in the direction of biofuels, biochemistry apparatus and processes, fermentation, etc., can solve the problems of affecting economic growth, affecting the market for upgraded by-products, and not being able to match the production market, so as to increase the amount of solid-state materials, increase the conversion rate, and increase the production capacity

Inactive Publication Date: 2010-01-21
SCF TECH AS
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  • Summary
  • Abstract
  • Description
  • Claims
  • Application Information

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

This approach reduces energy consumption, expands feedstock versatility, and creates a positive energy economy for ethanol production, enabling the efficient conversion of organic materials into hydrocarbon fuels while minimizing waste and operational costs.

Problems solved by technology

The world's energy demand is increasing, and the fossil fuel sources are depleted, leading to increasing competition for the available energy sources, and thereby hampering economic growth by high energy prices.
The market for the upgraded by-product is not expected to match the production, if a large number of bio-ethanol plants are put into operation.
Secondly many of the unit operations involved in prior art method have a relative high energy consumption thereby increasing the production cost of the bio-ethanol.
Thirdly a large amount of the plant installation cost is related to up-grading of the residual material e.g. decanting and drying, and especially the drying is very energy consuming.
Furthermore, existing methods for producing bio-ethanol is limited to specific feed stock.

Method used

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  • Method and apparatus for production of bio-ethanol and other fermentation products
  • Method and apparatus for production of bio-ethanol and other fermentation products
  • Method and apparatus for production of bio-ethanol and other fermentation products

Examples

Experimental program
Comparison scheme
Effect test

example 1

Illustrative Example 1

Conversion of Sewage Sludge

[0254]Anaerobic digested sewage sludge below was converted according to the method of the present invention in the laboratory scale plant shown in FIG. 1.

[0255]The dry matter content of the sewage sludge was 5%. The main components of the dry matter in weight % were:[0256]C=28.3%[0257]H=4.33%[0258]N=3.55%[0259]O=28.4%[0260]P=4.49%[0261]Al=7.77%[0262]Si=7.44%[0263]Ca=6.95%[0264]Fe=3.17%[0265]K=1.62%

[0266]An elemental analysis of sewage sludge dry matter was further analyzed by induced coupled plasma (ICP) revealing the following composition:

C [%]O [%]Al [%]H [%]Ca [%]Si [%]N [%]P [%]K [%]30.930.56.155.25.034.984.664.622.36Cl [%]S [%]Fe [%]Na [%]Mg [%]Zn [%]Ti [%]Ba [%]Mn [%]1.131.091.040.9380.8750.2260.1950.06520.0375

[0267]The combustible fraction amounts to 58% of the dry matter content, with a heat value of 22.2 MJ / kg, which translates into a calorific value of 476 KJ / kg in the sewage sludge as received.

[0268]Prior to the test the se...

example 2

Illustrative Example 2

Conversion of Sewage Sludge

[0288]Anaerobic digested sewage sludge with characteristics as given above in example was preheated and converted using the same catalyst and experimental set-up.

[0289]140 g / h of the pretreated sewage sludge was pressurized to 250 bar and heated to 230 C in the pre-heating step. This stream was mixed with 414 g / h of pressurized water heated to a temperature so as to obtain a substantially constant temperature of 300±5 C after mixing.

[0290]The mixed flow was subsequently contacted with the heterogeneous catalyst in the reactor. The feed to water ratio translates into a water to feed ratio of 3:1, and the total flow of 545 g / h translates into a contact time of 3.3 minutes.

[0291]After to the contact with the heterogeneous catalyst, the fluid containing the converted organic material is cooled to ambient temperature, filtered through a particle filter for collection of suspended particles, and expanded to ambient pressure. The liquid frac...

example 3

Illustrative Example 3

Conversion of Corn Silage

[0304]Corn silage was pretreated and converted using the same catalyst and experimental set-up as described above in example 1 and 2.

[0305]Prior to the test the sewage sludge was pretreated by sizing to less than 1 mm by cutting longer particles by a Seepex macerator (type 25 / 15-I-I-F12-2) and milling by a colloid mill (Probst und Class, type N100 / E), and filtered by a screen basket filter (mesh width 1 mm).

[0306]Subsequently 1.5% by weight of potassium in the form of potassium carbonate was added to the resulting slurry. The pH value of the slurry was 9.6.

[0307]The characteristics of the corn silage after the pretreatment were the following:

Corn silage feedstockDry matter content [% weight]11.29Inorganic fraction of dry matter29.4[% Weight]Density [kg / m3]1.0099pH9.6Heat of combustion1 [kJ / kg]14351Based on 18 MJ / kg heat of combustion for the organic fraction of the dry matter.

[0308]The inorganic content of the dry matter was mainly the ...

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Abstract

A method for converting organic material into hydrocarbon fuel, such as ethanol, the method comprising a fermentation process fermenting the organic material thereby providing a fermentation broth, a separation process separating the fermented material into a hydrocarbon fuel and a residual product, a conversion process at least partly converting the residual product into energy, and a energy distribution process distributing at least some of the energy provided by the conversion process to the fermentation process.

Description

[0001]The present invention relates to a method and apparatus for converting organic material into a burnable substance, typically a hydrocarbon fuel, such as ethanol.BACKGROUND [0002]The world's energy demand is increasing, and the fossil fuel sources are depleted, leading to increasing competition for the available energy sources, and thereby hampering economic growth by high energy prices. To overcome this situation, renewable energy sources must be brought into exploitation. With the present-day technology, the only renewable energy source which has sufficient capacity to cover significant parts of the energy demand is biomass conversion. Biomass is efficiently converted into heating and electricity by existing technologies, but transportation fuels, which accounts for one third of the total energy consumption, must be available as high energy density fluids, preferably compatible with fossil fuels like diesel oil and gasoline. Therefore technologies for transforming and intensi...

Claims

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Application Information

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Patent Type & Authority Applications(United States)
IPC IPC(8): C12P7/06
CPCC12P5/02C12P7/06C12M43/02Y02E50/17C12M21/12Y02E50/13Y02E50/10
Inventor IVERSEN, STEEN BRUMMERSTEDTMALLOL, CORINNELARSEN, TOMMY
Owner SCF TECH AS