Methods for generating energy using agricultural biofuel

A process comprising:

• providing grain stillage syrup to a fluidized bed reactor to produce combustion gases;
• cooling the combustion gases in a boiler to produce steam and cooled combustion gases;
• cleaning the cooled combustion gases of particulate to produce cleaned cooled combustion gases and ash;
• discharging the cleaned cooled combustion gases to the atmosphere;
• and
• providing dryer vapors to the fluidized bed reactor, wherein volatile organic compounds are reduced.

A process for producing steam comprising:

• in a fluidized bed reactor containing a fluidizing media comprised of sand particles, converting an ethanol byproduct containing at least 20% moisture to steam with a combustion process, wherein the temperature of the fluidizing media is raised to about 1500° F. at start-up through use of a burner;
• producing combustion gases in the fluidized bed reactor;
• extracting heat from the combustion gases in a boiler, wherein the combustion gases enter the boiler at a temperature of between about 1400 and 1500° F.;
• and
• transferring the heat to boiler feedwater to form steam and cooled combustion gases.

A process comprising:

• providing grain stillage syrup to a fluidized bed reactor to produce combustion gases, wherein the grain stillage syrup contains sulfur;
• cooling the combustion gases ma boiler to produce steam and cooled combustion gases;
• cleaning the cooled combustion gases of particulate to produce cleaned cooled combustion gases and ash;
• discharging the cleaned cooled combustion gases to the atmosphere;
• and
• adding limestone to the fluidized bed reactor to reduce sulfur dioxide content in the combustion gases by over 80%, wherein the volatile organic compounds are reduced by nearly 100%.