Ethanol is created in a sustainable manner by yeast fermentation of sugar derived from biomass raw materials such as grains (corn, wheat, barley, rye, triticale) or sugar (sugar cane, sugar beet). Distillation is used to recover ethanol after fermentation. The leftover, commonly known as distillers grains, is usually made into DDGS, a high-protein animal feed (Dry distillers grains with solubles).
At the start of the operation, a portion of the distilled grains is circulated as make-up water back to the carbohydrate cooking/slurry tank. The recovered distiller's grains increase the load of non-fermentable solids in the fermentor due to the remaining high suspended solids (5-7%) in the liquid, as well as the presence of oil and other miscellaneous components. Fermentation capacity will be reduced, and ethanol production will suffer as a result.
Alfa Chemistry can help you boost your bioethanol production by providing filtration solutions. Using Alfa Chemistry's products to fractionate thin stillage gives a powerful incentive to improve the traditional Bio Ethanol production process while also achieving much improved economics. Take a look at our Thin Stillage Fractionation products.
Economics and Yield
The thin vinasse is separated into a highly clear permeate (nearly free of suspended particles, big proteins, and oil) and a retentate stream using Alfa Chemistry's cross-flow process (high solids and oil). The crystal clear permeate is totally recovered as make-up water at the start of the process. This has a beneficial impact on fermentation yield and is one of the key variables in the application's success.
Because its moisture level is lower than that of untreated distillers' grains, concentrate (which contains 15-17 percent suspended particles) requires less energy for downstream evaporation. The energy savings made during this stage of the process have a substantial impact on the economy.
Finally, the higher the yield and nutritional content of the syrup supplied back to the final animal feed product, the more protein and other nutrients are maintained in the stagnant stream.
Learn About the Benefits
The use of Alfa Chemistry's cross-flow technology to fractionate distilled distiller's grains provides a powerful drive for improving the traditional bioethanol production process while also boosting economic benefits. Significant cost savings are aided by the following factors:
- Increased production of ethanol fermentation - Purify distilled distiller's grains to provide high-quality permeate that may be utilized as reclaimed make-up water and is free of non-fermentable particulates and other undesirable components.
- Reduce water costs - Grain cooking tanks/slurry tanks can save up to 50% of water due to their high permeability.
- Reduce the evaporator's energy cost by at least three times lowering the water content and increasing the suspended particles load of the thin stillage delivered to the evaporator.
- Increasing the suspended particles in the syrup resulted in increased animal feed production.
- Create the opportunity to generate additional value-added streams, particularly with penetration.
Alfa Chemistry's cross-flow technology's a fully modular design and autonomous operation allow it to work in continuous mode (24/7) at high temperatures (80+ ℃) to handle any thin stillage flow rate. These membrane-based techniques can recover additional value from byproducts and turn "trash" into useful goods. When we filter the distilled lees or centrifuge overflows, for example, we can recover:
- Crystal clear permeate
- Concentrated retentate (15-17% of suspended solids, corn oil and large proteins)For more information, please contact our experts.