Biotechnology

Fermentation products by, Fahad Siddiqui IX-L

1. Ethanol (Production)
 Grain is delivered by truck or rail to the ethanol plant where it’s loaded in storage bins
designed to hold enough grain to supply the plant for 7–10 days.

 The grain is screened to remove debris, then milled into ground material to allow water
and enzymes to contact and to react with starch in the ground material.

 In slurry tanks, the ground material is mixed with recycled water and enzymes. The contact
and reaction of these components cause starch gelatinization.

 The slurry flows through a separation device, where solids are selectively separated and
ground further in a mechanical milling device, and then returned to the process stream.

 In liquefaction tanks, the process hydrolyzes the gelatinized starch into glucose to produce
mash.

 The glucoamylase enzyme breaks down the dextrins to form simple sugars. Yeast is added
to convert the sugar to ethanol and carbon dioxide. The mash is then allowed to ferment
for 50–60 hours, resulting in a mixture that contains about 15% ethanol as well as the
solids from the grain and added yeast.

 The fermented mash is pumped into a multi-column distillation system where additional
heat is added. The columns utilize the differences in the boiling points of ethanol and water
to boil off and separate the ethanol. By the time the product stream is ready to leave the
distillation columns, it contains about 95% ethanol by volume (190 -proof). The residue
from this process, called stillage, contains non-fermentable solids and water and is
pumped out from the bottom of the columns into the centrifuges.

 The 190-proof product stream is pumped into the molecular sieve system. These
specialized tanks contain molecular sieve beads that adsorb water molecul es from the
process stream while ethanol molecules pass through unaffected. When the product
 stream leaves the molecular sieves, it contains approximately 99% ethanol by volume (200
proof).

 Before the ethanol is sent to the storage tanks, a small amount of denaturant is added,
making it unfit for human consumption.

 Most ethanol plants' storage tanks are sized to allow storage of 7-10 days of production
capacity.

 The stillage from the bottom of the distillation columns contain solids from the grain and
added yeast, as well as liquid from the water added during the process. It's then sent and
separated through the centrifuges into thin stillage (a liquid with 5-10% solids) and wet
distillers grain.

 The liquid that is not routed back to the cook/slurry tanks is sent through a multiple-effect
evaporation system where it is concentrated into syrup containing 25 -50% solids.

 The syrup, which is high in protein and fat content, is then mixed back in with the wet
distillers grain.

 The wet cake is conveyed to dryers where it is converted into a low-moisture (10-12%)
product called dried distillers grains with solubles.

 Base Tricanter System: Separates oil from the post-fermentation syrup stream as it leaves
the evaporators. The oil is routed to settling tanks, and the remaining concentrated syrup
is routed to your plant's existing syrup tank.

 Advanced Oil Recovery Skid: Breaks the emulsion concentrate (a mixture of water, oil,
soluble proteins, sugars, and starches), dramatically increasing the volume of oil recovere d
from the plant's process stream.

 The bio-oil is then pumped to settling tanks where majority of residual solids and wax -
bound oil have settled out and pumped to another tank. Then, high quality bio -oil in the
settling tanks is transported via tanker trucker or rail.