Patent ID: 7820418
Filing Date: 2010-10-26
Classification: C12P,Y02E

Abstract:
1. A method for processing corn into ethanol, comprising: (a) separating the corn into a bran, a germ, and a starch-and-protein mixture; (b) hydrolyzing the bran into a bran hydrolysate comprising free sugars; (c) hydrolyzing the starch in the starch-and-protein mixture of step (a) into a hydrolyzed mixture comprising a starch hydrolysate and protein which is insoluble in the starch hydrolysate; (d) separating the protein from the hydrolyzed mixture of step (c); (e) anaerobically fermenting yeast and the starch hydrolysate to produce an anaerobic fermentate; (f) separating the anaerobic fermentate of step (e) into (i) a first anaerobically fermented yeast stream, (ii) the ethanol, and (iii) a mixture comprising water and fermentation by-products; (g) aerobically fermenting yeast and the mixture comprising water and fermentation by-products of step (f) to consume at least part of the fermentation by-products, wherein the aerobically fermented yeast is the same or different than the yeast of step (e); and h) separating the result of step (g) into a second stream of the aerobically fermented yeast of step (g) and water.