Ecolab USA Inc.

Lan Xiao

Xiaodong Huang

Philip M Eastin

Jason Van't Hul

Xuejun Wang

Patrick G Murray

Hua Zheng

Yanjiao Xie

Tiandi Zhuang

Provided is a method of processing stillage from an ethanol production process. The method comprises treating stillage comprising oil, protein, and water upstream of a separation, concentration or evaporation step with at least one organic coagulant and at least one flocculant, thereby forming treated thin stillage comprising solids which include at least a portion of the oil and protein; and clarifying the treated stillage via a solid/liquid separation process thereby forming clarified stillage and a separated solids phase comprising at least a portion of the protein from the stillage.

Process to improve protein recovery in stillage processing streams

A method of detecting free flocculant polymer having a net charge present in an aqueous phase of a multi-phase substance is provided. The multi-phase substance comprises a solid phase, an organic phase, and the aqueous phase. The method comprises separating the solid phase from the multi-phase substance to form a dual phase top liquid comprising the organic phase and the aqueous phase; separating the organic phase from the dual phase top liquid, leaving the aqueous phase; combining the free flocculant polymer in the aqueous phase and a dye having an opposite net charge than that of the free flocculant polymer, thereby causing a spectroscopically observable change in the aqueous phase; and analyzing the aqueous phase via spectrometry to determine the concentration of the free flocculant polymer in the multi-phase substance.

Method of determining residual flocculant in effluent of an industrial clarification process

The invention provides methods and compositions for recovering oil from stillage. The method comprises the addition of a surfactant and a microparticle comprising hydrophilic silica to a grain to ethanol stillage. The methods and compositions of the present invention release oil trapped in solid aggregates, increasing the total amount of oil extracted from the stillage.

Chemical additives to improve oil separation in stillage process operations

The invention provides methods and compositions for utilizing encapsulated tracer dyes in difficult liquids such as wastewater or with highly reactive treatment chemicals such as aluminum-based coagulants. In difficult liquids or highly reactive treatment chemicals even so-called 'inert' tracers end up reacting and their fluorescence changes. As a result they are inconsistent and cannot be used to measure the amount of treatment chemical present. But by encapsulating the tracer dyes, even non inert tracer dyes become inert and they can reliably be used to measure the amount of treatment chemical present even if highly reactive or in a difficult liquid.

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Naperville, IL, United States of America

Lan Xiao