Processes and systems for alcohol production and recovery
AssigneeButamax Advanced Biofuels LLC
InventorsSteven Christopher BARR, Robert W. SYLVESTER, Joseph J. ZAHER
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
The present invention relates to processes for recovering butanol produced in a fermentative process using, for example, an ethanol production plant which has been reversibly-retrofitted for butanol production, that is, the ethanol production plant may be converted for butanol production, but can also revert to an ethanol production. The present invention also relates to processes for recovering butanol produced in a fermentative process in a butanol production plant that may be converted to ethanol production plant.
Claims31
1-92. (canceled)
A process for producing one or more product alcohols using a reversibly-retrofitted production plant, comprising:
- (a) providing a reversibly-retrofitted production plant comprising one or more fermentors for the production of one or more product alcohols, wherein at least one fermentor has been retrofitted for the production of one or more product alcohols;
- (b) providing an aqueous feedstream obtained from biomass, the aqueous feedstream comprising water and fermentable sugar;
- (c) contacting the aqueous feedstream with a fermentation broth in the at least one fermentor, the fermentation broth comprising a microorganism capable of producing one or more product alcohols;
- (d) fermenting the fermentable sugar in the at least one fermentor, wherein the microorganism produces one or more product alcohols, whereby the fermentation broth comprises one or more product alcohols;
- (e) separating the fermentation broth comprising the one or more product alcohols to produce a product alcohol-rich stream and product alcohol-lean stream;
- and
- (f) recovering the one or more product alcohols from the product alcohol-rich stream.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.