Separation of biocomponents from DDGS

Abstract

A multi stage process for the separation of bio-components from a waste stream containing Dried Distillers Grains with Solubles is disclosed. Targeted polymers are added to the source and separated streams prior to passing the streams through separation equipment including a rotary screen, a press, and a dissolved air floatation in which the waste stream is separated into a stream containing predominantly protein, a stream containing predominantly oil, a stream containing predominantly water and a stream that contains predominantly fibers.

I claim: 
     
       1. A multi-stage substantially continuous process for separating a source stream comprising dried distillers grain with solubles, said source stream intermixedly containing fibers, water, protein and oil, said process being configured for separating the source stream into streams each containing predominantly one component, said source stream containing dried distillers grains with solubles, said process comprising the stages of:
 (a) providing a source stream comprising dried distillers grain with solubles, said dried distillers grain stream containing water, oil, protein and fibers; 
 (b) separating said source stream into a second stream and a third stream, said second stream having a first non-aqueous portion containing predominantly fibers, said third stream having and a second non-aqueous portion containing predominantly a mixture of oil and protein, separating a fourth stream and a fifth stream from said third stream, said fourth stream containing about 99 percent water and said fifth stream containing between about 15 percent to about 25 percent oil and protein,; 
 (c) wherein separating the fourth stream and the fifth stream from said third stream is accomplished by passing said third stream second non-aqueous portion through a second chemical additive pipe having a second chemical addition inlet and a third chemical addition inlet, said second chemical additive pipe leading toward a Ddissolved Aair Ffloatation device, said third chemical addition configured to occur about 15 seconds after the second chemical addition based on an average volumetric flow rate through the pipe; adding between about 5 to about 25 ppm of a cationic acrylamide copolymer to the second chemical addition inlet; and feeding said third stream into the a Dissolved Air Floatation device wherein actions of said Dissolved Air Floatation device separate said third stream into the fourth stream and the fifth stream; and; 
 (d) adding about 5 to about 25 ppm of a cationic acrylamide copolymer to the second non-aqueous portion at the chemical addition inlet of the chemical additive pipe, so as to form a mixture of the cationic acrylamide copolymer and the second non-aqueous portion, the chemical additive pipe having a second chemical addition inlet and a third chemical addition inlet wherein a third chemical addition is configured to occur about 15 seconds after a second chemical addition based on an average volumetric flow rate through the pipe; 
 (e) separating said mixture of (d) into a predominantly water fraction and a non-aqueous fraction including oil, protein and water in the dissolved air flotation device, said predominantly water fraction containing about 99 percent water, said non-aqueous fraction containing between about 15 percent and about 25 percent oil and protein; and 
 (f) separating from the fifth stream a stream containing non-aqueous fraction of step (e) a predominantly oil fraction and a stream comprising predominantly protein through the steps of drying, size reduction, and pressing out the oil fraction, 
 wherein separating the source stream into the first non-aqueous portion and the second non-aqueous portion comprises: adding 5 to about 25 ppm of cationic polyamine to the source stream: separating the first non-aqueous portion and the second non-aqueous portion from said source stream with a rotary screen and wherein step (e) is accomplished by the steps of: 
 removing water from the non-aqueous fraction to achieve about 90 percent to about 95% solids content in the non-aqueous fraction, said water removal being accomplished by a pressing step, a vacuuming step and a drying step, said water removal step generating a dried cake containing predominantly oil and protein having particles; 
 reducing a particle size of the dried cake by passing the dried cake through a hammermill to generate a fragmented dried cake said fragmented dried cake containing predominantly oil and protein particles; and 
 passing the fragmented dried cake through a heated oil press to generate a dried fraction containing predominantly oil and a dried fraction containing predominantly protein. 
 
     
     
       2. The process of  claim 1 , wherein separating the source stream into the second stream and the third stream is accomplished by:
 passing said source stream through a first chemical additive pipe having a first chemical addition inlet, said first chemical additive pipe leading toward a rotary screen;   adding between about 5 to about 25 ppm of cationic polyamine to the first stream at said first chemical addition inlet; and   separating the second stream and the third stream from said source stream in the rotary screen.   
     
     
       3. The process of  claim 1  wherein separating the fifth stream a stream containing predominantly oil and a stream comprising predominantly protein is accomplished by the steps of:
 removing water from the fifth stream to achieve between about 90 percent and about 95% solids, said water removal being accomplished by a pressing step, a vacuuming step and a drying step, said water removal step generating an eighth stream, said eighth stream constituting of a dried cake containing predominantly oil and protein having a particles ranging in size between about 0.2 inches to about 0.5 inches; 
 reducing the particle size of the eighth stream by passing said eighth stream through a hammermill to generate a ninth stream, said ninth stream constituting of a dried cake containing predominantly oil and protein having particles ranging in size from between about 0.05 inches to about 0.2 inches; and 
 separating the ninth stream into a tenth stream containing predominantly oil and an eleventh stream containing predominantly protein, said separating being accomplished by passing the ninth stream through a heated oil press. 
 
     
     
       4. The process of claim  3  1 further comprising passing the tenth stream dried fraction containing predominantly oil through a filter, while adding between about 5 to about 25 ppm of cationic polyamine to said filter based on the average volumetric flow rate through the pipe, said polyamine addition resulting in precipitating any protein residual from said tenth stream dried fraction containing predominantly oil. 
     
     
       5. The process of claim  3  further comprising 1 wherein the pressing the fifth stream, said pressing being step is accomplished in either a multidisc press or a screw press, wherein said pressing separates step separating the fifth stream non-aqueous fraction into a seventh stream first non-aqueous component having a water content between of about 30 percent and to about 40 percent and a twelfth stream containing second non-aqueous component having a water content of above 40 percent, said twelfth stream being passed and wherein the vacuuming step is accomplished by passing said second non-aqueous component through a vacuum drum, said vacuum drum removing a water residue stream, said water residue stream being combined with the fourth stream. 
     
     
       6. The process of  claim 5 , further comprising adding to the vacuum drum between about 5 to about 25 ppm of anionic acrylamide copolymer having a MW molecular weight of between about 18 million to about 24 million. 
     
     
       7. The process of claim  3  1 wherein the drying constitutes step comprises passing the seventh stream first non-aqueous component through a dryer wherein water vapor in a temperature range of between about 60° C. and about 88° C. is injected prior to drying. 
     
     
       8. The process of  claim 1 , further comprising passing said second stream first non-aqueous portion containing predominantly fibers through a press to generate a sixth stream an aqueous fraction, said sixth stream aqueous fraction containing predominantly water, and combining the sixth stream aqueous fraction with the third stream second non-aqueous portion prior to entering the Dissolved Air Floatation device step (e). 
     
     
       9. The process of  claim 1  further comprising treating the fourth stream predominantly water fraction with between about 5 to about 25 ppm of anionic acrylamide copolymer to reduce thereby reducing COD and BOD levels of said fourth stream predominantly water fraction. 
     
     
       10. The process of  claim 1  further comprising measuring the pH of said second non-aqueous portion and adding between about 5 to about 25 ppm of an anionic acrylamide copolymer to said third chemical addition inlet if second non-aqueous portion when the pH of the third stream second non-aqueous portion is greater than 5.5. 
     
     
       11. The process of  claim 1 , wherein a charge of the cationic acrylamide copolymer is in a range of between about 20 percent and to about 40 percent. 
     
     
       12. The process of claim 5, further comprising combining the water residue fraction with the predominantly water fraction. 
     
     
       13. The process of claim 1, wherein the predominantly water fraction contains at least 97% water by weight. 
     
     
       14. A process of separating components of waste material from ethanol production, the process comprising:
 providing a source stream of waste material from ethanol production, the source stream comprising dried distillers grain with solubles and including water, fiber, protein, and oil components; and   separating the water, fiber, protein, and, oil components from the source stream into a predominantly water fraction, a predominantly fiber fraction, a predominantly protein fraction, and a predominantly oil fraction by:   (a) removing fiber components from the source stream to produce the predominantly fiber fraction and a low solids stream including water, protein, and oil;   (b) treating the low solids stream with a cationic acrylamide polymer to form a treated low solids stream, said treating the low solids stream with a cationic acrylamide polymer being accomplished through chemical addition to a pipe containing a second chemical addition inlet and a third chemical addition inlet wherein a third chemical addition is configured to occur about 15 seconds after a second chemical addition based on an average volumetric flow rate through the pipe;   (c) passing the treated low solids stream in (b) through a dissolved air flotation device that separates the treated low solids stream into the predominantly water fraction and a non-aqueous fraction including oil, protein and water, the predominantly water fraction containing about 99 percent water, the non-aqueous fraction containing about 15 percent to about 25 percent oil and protein;   (d) removing water from the non-aqueous fraction in (c) to form a predominantly protein and oil mixture fraction; and   (e) separating the predominantly protein and oil mixture fraction into the predominantly protein fraction and the predominantly oil fractions;   wherein removing fiber components from the source stream to produce the predominantly fiber fraction comprises:
 adding about 5 to about 25 ppm of cationic polyamine to the source stream; 
 separating the predominantly fiber fraction and the low solids stream from said source stream with a rotary screen; 
   wherein separating the predominantly protein and oil mixture fraction into the predominantly protein fraction and the predominantly oil fraction comprises:
 removing water from the non-aqueous fraction to achieve about 90 percent to about 95 percent solids content in the non-aqueous fraction, said water removal being accomplished by a pressing step, a vacuuming step and a drying step, said water removal step generating a dried cake containing predominantly oil and protein particles; 
   reducing a particle size of the dried cake by passing the dried cake through a hammermill to generate a fragmented dried cake, said fragmented dried cake containing predominantly oil and protein particles; and   passing the fragmented dried cake through a heated oil press to generate a dried fraction containing predominantly oil and a dried fraction containing predominantly protein.   
     
     
       15. The process of claim 14, further comprising passing the dried fraction containing predominantly oil through a filter, while adding about 5 to about 25 ppm of cationic polyamine to said filter, said polyamine addition resulting in precipitating any protein residual from said dried fraction containing predominantly oil. 
     
     
       16. The process of claim 14, wherein the pressing step is accomplished in either a multidisc press or a screw press, said pressing step separating the non-aqueous fraction into a first non-aqueous component having a water content of about 30 percent to about 40 percent and a second non-aqueous component having a water content of above 40 percent, and wherein the vacuuming step is accomplished by passing said second non-aqueous component through a vacuum drum, said vacuum drum removing a water residue fraction. 
     
     
       17. The process of claim 16, further comprising adding to the vacuum drum about 5 to about 25 ppm of anionic acrylamide copolymer. 
     
     
       18. The process of claim 16, further comprising combining the water residue fraction with the predominantly water fraction. 
     
     
       19. The process of claim 14, wherein the drying step comprises passing the first non-aqueous component through a dryer wherein water vapor in a temperature range of about 60° C. to about 88° C. is injected prior to drying. 
     
     
       20. The process of claim 14, further comprising: passing said predominantly fiber fraction through a press to generate an aqueous fraction, said aqueous fraction containing predominantly water; and combining the aqueous fraction with the low solids stream prior to step (c). 
     
     
       21. The process of claim 14, further comprising treating the predominantly water fraction with about 5 to about 25 ppm of anionic acrylamide copolymer, thereby reducing COD and BOD levels of said predominantly water fraction. 
     
     
       22. The process of claim 14, further comprising measuring a pH of the low solids stream and adding an anionic acrylamide copolymer to said low solids stream when the pH of the low solids stream is greater than 5.5. 
     
     
       23. The process of claim 14, wherein a charge of the cationic acrylamide copolymer is in a range of between about 20 percent and 40 percent. 
     
     
       24. The process of claim 14, wherein the predominantly water fraction contains at least 97% water by weight.