Method of freeing the bound oil present in whole stillage and thin stillage
AssigneeGs Cleantech Corporation
InventorsDavid J. Winsness, David Fred Cantrell
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Abstract
A method is provided for recovering oil from stillage including oil resulting from a process used for producing ethanol. In one embodiment, the method includes heating the stillage to a temperature sufficient to at least partially separate, or unbind, the oil therefrom The method further includes recovering the oil from the stillage.
Claims11
A method of recovering oil from stillage, including oil, resulting from a process used for producing ethanol, comprising:
- recovering whole stillage from the process used for producing the ethanol;
- mechanically processing the whole stillage to provide distillers wet grains and thin stillage;
- evaporating the thin stillage to form a thin stillage concentrate;
- heating the thin stillage concentrate to a temperature greater than 212° F. and a pressure sufficient to prevent boiling;
- and
- recovering the oil from the thin stillage concentrate.
A method of recovering oil from concentrated stillage including oil resulting from a process used for producing ethanol, comprising:
- pressure cooking the concentrated stillage at a temperature greater than 212° F. without boiling to unbind the oil from the stillage;
- and recovering the unbound oil.
A method of recovering oil from thin stillage including oil resulting from a process used for producing ethanol, comprising:
- evaporating the thin stillage to form a thin stillage concentrate;
- hydrolyzing solids in the thin stillage concentrate so as to reduce a viscosity of the concentrate;
- and
- recovering the oil from the thin stillage concentrate.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.