System for treatment of biomass to facilitate the production of ethanol

A system for the production of ethanol from pre-treated biomass comprising:

• a source of pre-treated biomass;
• a centrifuge in fluid communication with the source of pre-treated biomass, wherein the centrifuge is configured to separate the pre-treated biomass into a liquid component and a solid component, wherein the liquid component comprises sugars;
• a filter comprising a pore size of between 25 microns and 100 microns, wherein the filter is in fluid communication with the centrifuge to receive the liquid component to provide a filtered liquid component;
• an apparatus configured to remove one or more inhibitors from the filtered liquid component, thereby yielding a first treated liquid component, wherein the apparatus is in fluid communication with the filter to receive the filtered liquid component;
• an evaporation system in fluid communication with the apparatus to receive the first treated liquid component to remove water from the first treated liquid component and produce a second treated liquid component;
• and
• a fermentation system in fluid communication with the evaporation system to receive the second treated liquid component, wherein the fermentation system comprises an ethanologen to ferment the sugars into ethanol;
• wherein the apparatus comprises an ion exchange system comprising a resin bed;
• wherein the resin bed comprises a resin capable of binding said inhibitors;
• wherein the biomass comprises lignocellulosic material;
• wherein the lignocellulosic material comprises at least one of corn cobs, corn plant husks, corn plant leaves and corn plant stalks.