Method of continuously producing ethanol and electricity from a sustainable renewable biomass feedstock
OwnerRussell W Spitzinventor
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
Disclosed is a method of continuously producing ethanol and electricity from a sustainable renewable biomass feedstock in a processing plant contiguous to the acreage providing the biomass. The process is a closed loop operation having a dedicated crop grown year round producing multiple crops per acre. The renewable biomass feedstock is a sugar containing feedstock such as sweet sorghum. The biomass is grown year round and produces multiple crops per acre.
Claims14
A method of continuously producing ethanol and electricity from a sustainable, renewable biomass feedstock in a processing plant comprising:
- a) harvesting a bagasse containing biomass grown year round from a substantially contiguous acreage of at least 25,000 acres and transporting the biomass to the processing plant;
- b) extracting a sugar juice from the harvested biomass while producing moist bagasse;
- c) either directly burning the bagasse or gasifying the bagasse then burning the resulting gas to boil water to make steam and an exhaust gas;
- d) using the steam to drive a turbine to produce all the electricity necessary for the processing plant and an excess which is sold;
- e) recycling the exhaust gas from the bagasse gasification or combustion to dry the bagasse after step b);
- f) fermenting the sugar juice to produce a fermentate and distilling the fermentate to produce ethanol.
A method of continuously producing ethanol and electricity from a sustainable renewable biomass feedstock comprising sweet sorghum in a processing plant comprising:
- a) harvesting a bagasse containing biomass comprising sweet sorghum grown year round from a substantially contiguous acreage of at least 25,000 acres and transporting the biomass to the processing plant;
- b) extracting a sugar juice from the harvested biomass while producing moist bagasse;
- c) either directly burning the bagasse or gasifying the bagasse then burning the resulting gas to boil water to make steam and a exhaust gas;
- d) using the steam to drive a turbine to produce all the electricity necessary for the processing plant and an excess which is sold;
- e) recycling the exhaust gas from the bagasse gasification or combustion to dry the bagasse after step b);
- f) fermenting the sugar juice to produce a fermentate and distilling the fermentate to produce ethanol.
A method of continuously producing ethanol and electricity from sweet sorghum in a processing plant comprising:
- a) harvesting sweet sorghum grown year round on a substantially contiguous acreage of at least 25,000 acres and transporting the biomass to the processing plant that is centrally located inside the substantially contiguous acreage;
- b) extracting a sugar juice from the harvested sweet sorghum while producing moist bagasse;
- c) either directly burning the bagasse or gasifying the bagasse then burning the resulting gas to boil water to make steam and a exhaust gas;
- d) using the steam to drive a turbine to produce all the electricity necessary for the processing plant and an excess which is sold;
- e) recycling the exhaust gas from the bagasse gasification or combustion to dry the bagasse after step b);
- f) fermenting the sugar juice to produce a fermentate and distilling the fermentate to produce ethanol.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.