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US 12,318,706 B2Granted
Process for evaporating water from stillage
AssigneeICM, Inc.
InventorsCharles C. Gallop, Keith Tjaden
Life of this patent
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Abstract
This disclosure describes energy efficient process to distill a process stream in a production facility. A process uses multiple effect evaporators, ranging from one evaporator to eight evaporators in each effect. The process arrangement shows an example of four effect evaporators, with a zero-effect evaporator having a single evaporator, a first-effect evaporator having a set of three evaporators, a second-effect evaporator having a set of three evaporators, and a third-effect evaporator having a set of evaporators to create condensed distillers solubles.
Claims21
A process comprising:
- evaporating a first steam condensate in a zero number evaporator to produce a first steam;
- evaporating water from a stillage stream in two or more evaporator effects to produce a concentrated stillage syrup, wherein each of the two or more evaporator effects produces a corresponding concentrated stillage and a corresponding evaporate vapor, and wherein the first steam from the zero number evaporator provides heat energy to evaporate water from the stillage stream in the two or more evaporator effects;
- and
- distilling an ethanol-laden beer in one or more distillation columns to produce an overhead vapor comprising primarily ethanol, wherein at least one of the corresponding evaporate vapors from the two or more evaporator effects provides heat energy for separation of ethanol from the ethanol-laden beer in the one or more distillation columns.
1 more element
A process comprising:
- evaporating a first steam condensate in a zero number evaporator to produce a first steam;
- evaporating water from a stillage in a plurality of evaporator effects to produce a concentrated stillage syrup;
- wherein the plurality of evaporator effects comprises a first-effect evaporator that produces a first concentrated stillage and a first evaporate vapor, a second-effect evaporator that produces a second concentrated stillage and a second evaporate vapor, and a third-effect evaporator that produces a third concentrated stillage and a third evaporate vapor;
- wherein the first steam from the zero number evaporator provides heat energy to evaporate water from the stillage in the plurality of evaporator effects;
- and
- distilling an ethanol-laden beer in a first distillation column maintained at a pressure below atmospheric pressure to separate ethanol from the ethanol-laden beer, wherein at least a portion of one or more of the first evaporate vapor, the second evaporate vapor, and the third evaporate vapor provides heat energy for the distilling of the ethanol-laden beer in the first distillation column.
3 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.