Systems and methods for recovering carbon dioxide from industrially relevant waste streams, especially ethanol fermentation processes, for application in food and beverage production

Abstract

A system for recovering CO2 via liquefaction and purification from a vented CO2 gas stream comprising a compressor; a dehydrator; a scrubber; a refrigerator having one or more stages; and a separation subsystem adapted to ensure non-condensable gas content in the final product meets industry standards. The liquid CO2 product is of sufficient purity to be used in applications requiring beverage-grade CO2. The system can be utilized as a single-brewery installation to reduce venting from ethanol fermenters to an absolute minimum, produce a high purity liquid CO2 product for use in-process or external sales, and offset the purchasing of expensive, industrial CO2 of inferior purity.

Description

RELATED APPLICATIONS[0001]This application claims the benefit of U.S. Provisional Application No. 62 / 020,883 filed Jul. 3 2014 entitled “Systems And Methods For Recovering Carbon Dioxide From Industrially Relevant Waste Streams, Especially Ethanol Fermentation Processes, For Application In Food And Beverage Production” which is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety.FIELD OF THE INVENTION[0002]The present invention relates to enabling the recovery of carbon dioxide (CO2) from industrially relevant waste streams containing a sufficiently high concentration of CO2. The invention is most readily applicable to the burgeoning beverage alcohol industry (microdistilleries, craft vintners, and craft breweries) in the United States, most especially the craft beer brewing industry. In a craft brewery, carbon dioxide can be recovered from fermentation tanks, bright beer tanks, and other process vessels, tanks and lines. The recovered CO2 can then be used in forced carbonation, keggin...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

[0025]The system design presented in the present application solves the problems with existing systems provided by other manufacturers. The present system is intentionally designed to be cost-effective, compact, and compatible with typical craft brewery facilities. Most importantly, the system is intentionally designed to interface with the typical craft brewery operation in a minimally invasive way, which has no adverse effect on the rate of production of beer, while adding a only a minimal workload to brewery cellar operators.

[0026]The inventors realized that what is needed is a system that can draw CO2 from both fermentation tanks and bright beer tanks at operating conditions typically experienced in a craft brewery. Further, that the system can be interfaced into

Problems solved by technology

However, smaller operations often lack the capital required for installation of recovery equipment.

Therefore, a technological gap exists between the laboratory and industrial scales for recovery, purification and storage of CO2 where it is currently being vented and wasted.

These systems are typically very expensive, have large footprints, require extensive facility modification, and are generally not accessible to craft breweries (production less than 6 million barrels of beer per annum).

Craft breweries face a

Images