51 results about "Syngas fermentation" patented technology

The present invention is directed to improvements in gasification for use with synthesis gas fermentation. Further, the present invention is directed to improvements in gasification for the production of alcohols from a gaseous substrate containing at least one reducing gas containing at least one microorganism.

The present invention relates to improvement in efficiency in gasification for use with syngas fermentation. In particular, the invention relates to increasing the overall carbon capture efficiency of a gasification/fermentation process to produce products such as alcohols.

The invention discloses a reaction device for producing organic acid and alcohol through synthesis gas fermentation, comprising a main body reactor and an external gas cycle system which is connected with the main body reactor and cycles the gas generated in the main body reactor, wherein the main body reactor comprises a reactor pot body and a guide cylinder which is arranged in the reactor pot body, is fixed by a support and is a concentric cylinder of the reactor pot body; a blade type blender is arranged along the axis of the guide cylinder, the end, with a blending blade, of the blender is arranged close to the bottom end of the guide cylinder and the other end of the blender is connected with a drive motor; a vent pipe of a gas distributor stretches into the position between the bottom in the guide cylinder and the lower part of the blending blade, and the other end of the gas distributor is communicated with a gas input pipeline by stretching out of the guide cylinder. A cycle gas circuit and a normal gas supply gas circuit are alternately used in the external gas cycle system. The reaction device of the invention has the advantage of simple structure and operation, can obtain good gas-liquid mass transfer without high blending power and ventilation volume, can not only realize continuous gas supply but also realize gas cycle utilization, and greatly improves the use ratio of the gas substrate.

A process to temporarily and selectively control the dissolved concentration of CO in the feed medium portion of a fermentation liquid by addition of a surface tension active compound (STAC), particularly during seed train scale-up operations and during recovery from process upsets, to support improved production of biofuels from a syngas fermentation. The process inoculates the fermentation liquid when the cell density level is from 0.05 to 0.5 OD with the surface tension active compound at a concentration of from 20 to 800 mg per liter of syngas fermentation liquid. The surface tension active compound may be a polyol or glycol.

The methods are utilized to recover ammonium from waste water using CO₂ acidified absorption water. The process is particularly suited for utilization of cellular matter and a CO₂ rich tail gas from a syngas fermentation process and derives significant benefit from the recovery of ammonium bicarbonate and ammonium carbonate. Ammonia and ammonium are recovered from the treatment of the syngas as an ammonium rich solution, at least a portion of which is recycled to the fermentation zone to aid in the production of liquid products. A carbon dioxide rich gas produced by fermentation is used to capture the ammonia and ammonium, forming the ammonium rich solution.

The invention relates to the field of fermentation engineering, in particular to a complex microbial community and application thereof in alcohol production by syngas fermentation. The complex microbial community is high in stability and alcohol production efficiency, and is free of infectious microbes contamination within 30 days of continuous fermentation; by using the complex microbial community in syngas biological fermentation, alcohol can be produced stably and abundantly; alcohol concentration in fermentation broth is up to 17.2 g/L, and alcohol in a fermentation product is up to 92% in mass percent.

The invention present provides a method (and suitable apparatus) to convert biomass to ethanol, comprising gasifying the biomass to produce raw syngas; feeding the raw syngas to an acid-gas removal unit to remove at least some CO₂ and produce a conditioned syngas stream; feeding the conditioned syngas stream to a fermentor to biologically convert the syngas to ethanol; capturing a tail gas from an exit of the fermentor, wherein the tail gas comprises at least CO₂ and unconverted CO or H₂; and recycling a first portion of the tail gas to the fermentor and/or a second portion of the tail gas to the acid-gas removal unit. This invention allows for increased syngas conversion to ethanol, improved process efficiency, and better overall biorefinery economics for conversion of biomass to ethanol.

A process that generates sulfide in production of liquid products from syngas and a system for syngas fermentation including a sulfide generation process to convert feed gas to liquid product, the process including: partially oxidizing high-temperature gas, input gas, and molten sulfur to generate sulfide gas, the high-temperature gas containing oxygen, the input gas containing carbonaceous fuel and the sulfide gas containing hydrogen sulfide, CO, CO₂, and H₂; mixing the sulfide gas with the feed gas to generate mixed gas having a predetermined hydrogen sulfide concentration; providing at least a portion of the mixed gas to a production fermentor containing microorganisms; and converting the mixed gas to the liquid product by contact with the microorganisms.

Integrated processes are provided for the bioconversion of syngas to oxygenated organic compound with the ability to recycle sulfur nutrient and generate sulfur nutrient to the syngas fermentation in a safe and cost-effective manner. In preferred aspects of the invention, an acidogenic digestion is used to provide a biogas containing hydrogen sulfide, and then a methanogenic fermentation can follow to provide a methane-containing biogas that has a low hydrogen sulfide concentration.

The present invention relates to use of high moisture, renewable feedstocks in integrated anaerobic digestion treatment (AD) and Syngas fermentation to alcohols and other soluble products. More specifically, the invention relates to use of high moisture, renewable feedstocks such as the organic fraction of municipal solid waste (OFMSW), biological waste sludge, source separated organics, green wastes such as FW from supermarkets, cafeterias, etc., and other such plentiful sources for power and fermentation, significantly increasing yield of a desired alcohol.

Even for relatively large Syngas to ethanol (or other chemical) production facilities, such wastes could represent a significant fraction of needed resources for Syngas fermentation. The proper integration of the anaerobic digestion process, post treatment, and use of fractionated components are also believed to represent a considerable savings in overall production costs.

The invention provides a bubble-free air supply and solid-liquid separation integrated membrane biomembrane reactor comprising a gas distribution pipe, a hollow bubble-free air supply fiber membrane module, a water distribution pipe and a solid-liquid separation membrane module which are arranged in a tank body of the reactor, wherein the top ends of the hollow bubble-free air supply fiber membrane module and the solid-liquid separation membrane module are lower than the liquid level in the tank body; the hollow bubble-free air supply fiber membrane module is communicated with a feed gas storage tank through the gas distribution pipe, the water distribution pipe is communicated with a culture medium storage tank through a feeding pump, and the solid-liquid separation membrane module is communicated with a liquid product outlet through a sorption pump; the tank body is also provided with a circulating water outlet, a gas product outlet, a feed supplement hole, a thermometer, a pH meter and a pressure gage; and partial pressure of gas in the cavity of a hollow fiber membrane is lower than the pressure of a bubble point so as to ensure that the hollow bubble-free air supply fiber membrane module realizes bubble-free air supply. The reactor has higher fermentation reaction rate and product concentration, and can enhance economic feasibility of fermentation of synthesis gas and other indissoluble gases, thereby being suitable for a biological fermentation process taking various indissoluble gases as raw materials.

A process and apparatus is provided which are effective for improving CO mass transfer. The process includes introducing syngas into a reactor vessel through a gas sparger located below a liquid level in the reactor vessel. The syngas being introduced at a flow rate effective for maintaining a pressure inside of the reactor vessel of at least about 1 psig. An agitation energy of about 0.01 to about 12 kWatts/m3 medium is provided. The process is effective for providing a volumetric CO mass transfer coefficient of about 100 to about 1500 per hour.

The invention discloses an atomization bioreactor based on synthesis gas fermented ethanol or butanol. The atomization bioreactor comprises a transparent thallus cultivation tank, a culture medium atomization reaction tank system, an atomization automatic control system, a synthesis gas pneumatic control system and a mash recycling pipeline system. The atomization bioreactor is characterized in that an immobilized fermentation thallus is put on a mesh cultivation layer, then the mesh cultivation layer is put in the thallus cultivation tank, and the fermentation reaction is carried out in the thallus cultivation tank; meanwhile, a culture medium is sprayed to the thallus cultivation tank by using the culture medium atomization reaction tank system so as to provide a nutrient solution for the thallus, and then the atomization automatic control system is used for increasing automatic control, so that the nutrient solution is automatically sprayed as required, and the effect of saving both time and labor is achieved; the synthesis gas pneumatic control system is used for feeding synthesis gas into the thallus cultivation tank so as to supply a carbon source component and an energy source component which are required for anaerobic fermentation bacteria, and in addition, a liquid condensed after atomization is recycled through the mash recycling pipeline system, and the wasting of resources is reduced.

According to an embodiment, there is provided herein a system and method wherein knowledge of the syngas fermentation is combined with standard instrumentation to provide a stable control of gas supply to automatically poise the fermentation to provide both high conversion of CO and H₂, and high selectivity for production of ethanol. The control is based on an automatic feedback loop that corrects for operational imbalance and maintains a stable continuous fermentation required for commercial operation. In a further embodiment, feed of syngas to ethanol fermentation can be optimally controlled using the pH of the broth as the input variable for flow control of the gas. This concept will automatically maintain the correct supply of syngas to the fermentation, and provide stable operation at optimal rates.

The invention relates to a method for preparing medium-chain fatty acid on a hollow fiber membrane by utilizing fermentation of synthesis gas. The hollow fiber membrane is adhered to the interior of areactor, sludge, a medium needed by growth of microorganisms and a methane inhibitor are added into the reactor, the synthesis gas is injected into the reactor continuously, the reaction temperatureis controlled, so that substances in the reactor flows cyclically to react stably, and the medium-chain fatty acid is prepared. Compared with the prior art, the method solves the problem that competitiveness exists between the plant oil generated from the grain crop needed by preparing the medium-chain fatty acid and the grain needed by adequate food of human beings, and meanwhile, solves the problems that organic solid wastes are difficult to treat, and energy consumption is high.

Disclosed is a method for producing a bioalcohol based on the fermentation of syngas. The method includes adding hydrophilic nanoparticles surface modified with hydrophobic groups to a culture medium for fermentation. Also disclosed are hydrophilic nanoparticles surface modified with hydrophobic groups for enhancing bioalcohol yield. The hydrophilic nanoparticles may be, for example, silica nanoparticles.