Method for employing ear corn in the manufacture of ethanol
AssigneeAlvin D. Shulman
InventorAlvin D. Shulman
Life of this patent
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Abstract
Ear corn is picked from corn fields by ear corn harvesters and transported to a central shelling station associated with an ethanol manufacturing facility. Shelled corn from the central shelling station is processed into ethanol at the ethanol manufacturing facility, and corn cobs from the central shelling station are burned to provide process heat for the ethanol manufacturing process. Energy is conserved and costs are reduced during the picking and shelling of the car corn and by the burning of cobs for process heat.
Claims24
A method for producing ethanol at an ethanol manufacturing facility to which corn and corn cobs are delivered as feed materials, wherein said corn has previously been dried to reduce its moisture content before it is delivered to the ethanol manufacturing facility, and wherein the corn and corn cobs have previously been subjected to other processing that is performed upstream of the ethanol manufacturing facility and that comprises the steps of:
- providing a plurality of farm fields for supplying said feed materials to the ethanol manufacturing facility;
- employing harvesting equipment to pick, from a farm field, ear corn comprising corn and corn cobs as components;
- harvesting both of said components in a single pass of the harvesting equipment;
- separating said ear corn components after said picking step and before the components are delivered to the ethanol manufacturing facility;
- delivering the cobs, apart from stalks, to the ethanol manufacturing facility;
- delivering the corn to the same ethanol manufacturing facility as the cobs from which the corn has been separated;
- and
- performing said processing without consuming cobs, upstream of the ethanol manufacturing facility, to dry corn delivered to that facility;
- and wherein said method comprises:
- chemically processing into ethanol the corn delivered to said ethanol manufacturing facility;
- using heat in the processing of said corn;
- employing cobs, apart from stalks, as a source of fuel for the heat used to process corn that has been separated from cobs employed as the source of fuel;
- and performing said method without chemically processing stalks.
A method for employing corn and corn cobs at an ethanol manufacturing facility, wherein said corn and corn cobs have previously been subjected to processing steps that are performed upstream of the ethanol manufacturing facility and that comprise:
- employing harvesting equipment to pick, from a farm field, ear corn comprising corn and corn cobs as components;
- harvesting both of said components in a single pass of the harvesting equipment;
- separating the components in a separating step performed at a location upstream of said ethanol manufacturing facility;
- delivering the corn, that has been separated from the corn cobs, to the ethanol manufacturing facility;
- delivering said corn cobs to the same ethanol manufacturing facility as the corn from which the cobs were separated;
- and
- expending less fossil fuel in said upstream processing steps, for a given quantity of corn, than in a method in which the corn is harvested by a combine that returns all cobs to the field, and doing so without consuming cobs or stalks upstream of the ethanol manufacturing facility and wherein said method comprises:
- chemically processing said corn into ethanol at said ethanol manufacturing facility;
- using process heat in said processing of the corn;
- employing corn cobs, from a plurality of farm fields, as a source of fuel for the heat employed to process corn that has been separated from cobs employed as the source of that fuel;
- and performing said method without consuming stalks.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.