Preparation of ethanol from corn

• Main Authors: Borst, Joseph P, Newton, Anthony, Zack, Kenneth L
• Format: Patent
• Language: English
• Published: 15.06.2021
• Subjects: ANIMAL AND VEGETABLE OILS, FATS, FATTY SUBSTANCES AND WAXES; BEER; BIOCHEMISTRY; BREWING OF BEER; CANDLES; CHEMISTRY; DENATURING OF, OR DENATURED, ALCOHOL; DETERGENTS; DISTILLATION OR RECTIFICATION OF FERMENTED SOLUTIONS; ENZYMOLOGY; ESSENTIAL OILS; FATTY ACIDS THEREFROM; FERMENTATION OR ENZYME-USING PROCESSES TO SYNTHESISE A DESIREDCHEMICAL COMPOUND OR COMPOSITION OR TO SEPARATE OPTICAL ISOMERSFROM A RACEMIC MIXTURE; METALLURGY; MICROBIOLOGY; MUTATION OR GENETIC ENGINEERING; PERFUMES; PRODUCING (PRESSING, EXTRACTION), REFINING AND PRESERVINGFATS, FATTY SUBSTANCES (e.g. LANOLIN), FATTY OILS AND WAXES,INCLUDING EXTRACTION FROM WASTE MATERIALS; RECOVERY OF BY-PRODUCTS; SPIRITS; VINEGAR; WINE

A corn-to-ethanol production process is disclosed. The process includes the steps of dry-milling corn kernels to form a corn flour; combining the corn flour with water to form a mash; extracting corn oil from the mash; fermenting the mash thereby producing beer and carbon dioxide; distilling the beer to produce ethanol and whole stillage; and processing the whole stillage to produce wet distiller's grains with solubles (WDGS) and/or dried distiller's grains with solubles (DDGS). The step of extracting corn oil from the mash includes the sub steps of: optionally wet-milling the mash; separating the mash to produce a light phase and a heavy phase; adding an alkanesulfonic acid to the light phase; extracting corn oil from the light phase; and combining the light phase having the corn oil extracted therefrom with the heavy phase to reform the mash.