US 9,096,911 B2 · Grain milling process

Abstract

A modification is described of a dry grind process for producing ethanol and other co-products from whole grain, whereby the mash is thermochemically treated by cooking the mash in the presence of an organic acid. The organic acid effectively hydrolyzes both the starch and hemicellulosic components in the milled corn to provide fermentable sugars from both the endosperm and other parts of the kernel, without, however, also producing fermentation-inhibiting levels of other known products of the acid hydrolysis of hemicellulosic materials, such as hydroxymethylfurfural (HMF) and furfural. Further, the organic acid is able to solubilize both the starch and the more recalcitrant hemicelluloses while only partially hydrolyzing the same, so that most of the starch and hemicelluloses are hydrolyzed to oligomers and the amount of chemically labile and reducing sugars is kept sufficiently low as to also not appreciably interfere with the fermentation to ethanol.

Claims6

Dependent claims

An improved grain milling process including the production of ethanol by fermentation, comprising:

grinding a whole grain;
forming a slurry with water of the ground whole grain;
adding one or more enzymes and one or more organic acids to the slurry with heating to liquefy fermentable components of the ground whole grain and produce a mash;
recovering and recycling at least a portion of the one or more organic acids used to produce the mash;
adding an enzyme to the mash to form a fermentation medium for producing ethanol;
and
fermenting the fermentation medium in the presence of yeast and one or more added enzymes.

4 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.

Grain milling process

Life of this patent

Grain milling process

Life of this patent

Abstract

Claims6