System for recycling water to facilitate the production of ethanol

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9309539-B2
Application number	US-75763010-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Apr 9, 2010
Priority date	Apr 10, 2009
Publication date	Apr 12, 2016
Grant date	Apr 12, 2016

Abstract

A system for the production of ethanol is disclosed. The system comprises a system for recycling water in an ethanol production process. The system may comprise: a water supply that supplies water to the ethanol production process, a cooling tower system that supplies water to the ethanol production process, and a treatment system that supplies water to the ethanol production process. The treatment system may be a reverse osmosis system that supplies a retentate stream to the ethanol production process.

First claim

I claim:

1. A method of recycling water in a biorefinery ethanol production process, the method comprising:
supplying water from a water supply to a reverse osmosis system of the biorefinery ethanol production process;
supplying water from the water supply and the reverse osmosis system to a cooling tower of the biorefinery ethanol production process;
supplying water from the reverse osmosis system to a boiler system of the biorefinery ethanol production process; and
supplying steam from the boiler system and water from the cooling tower and the reverse osmosis system to the biorefinery ethanol production process.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the water from the water supply comprises less than 100 percent of water supplied to the biorefinery ethanol production process.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein the water from the cooling tower comprises between 1 and 7 percent of water supplied to the biorefinery ethanol production process.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein water supplied to the biorefinery ethanol production process, after recycling said water, comprises between 100 and 600 parts per million of Calcium.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein water supplied to the biorefinery ethanol production process, after recycling said water, comprises between 30 and 600 parts per million of Magnesium.

6. The method of claim 1 , wherein water supplied to the biorefinery ethanol production process, after recycling said water, comprises between 10 and 500 parts per million of Sulfate.

7. The method of claim 1 , wherein water supplied to the biorefinery ethanol production process, after recycling said water, comprises between 0 and 125 parts per million of Silicon Dioxide.

8. The method of claim 1 , wherein water supplied to the biorefinery ethanol production process, after recycling said water, comprises between 0 and 250 parts per million of Chloride.

9. The method of claim 1 , wherein water supplied to the biorefinery ethanol production process, after recycling said water, comprises between 1000 and 4000 parts per million of total dissolved solids.

10. The method of claim 1 , wherein the reverse osmosis system produces a permeate stream and a retentate stream, the retentate stream being supplied to the biorefinery ethanol production process.

11. The method of claim 1 , wherein the water supplied to the biorefinery ethanol production process comprises a Langelier Saturation Index less than 2.

Assignees

• Kloos Rachel L
• Poet Res Inc

Inventors

• Kloos Rachel L

Classifications

• C12P7/06 Primary

  Ethanol, i.e. non-beverage · CPC title

• Y02E50/17

  Cross-Sectional Technologies · mapped topic

• C12M21/12 Primary

  for producing fuels or solvents (C12M21/04 takes precedence; liquid carbonaceous fuels C10L1/00, solid fuels C10L5/00) · CPC title

• C12M43/02

  Bioreactors or fermenters combined with devices for liquid fuel extraction; Biorefineries · CPC title

• C12M47/20

  Heating or cooling (heating or cooling apparatus for laboratory uses B01L7/00) · CPC title