Patent ID: 8328994

Claim:
A process for a preparation of ethanol from a fermented biomass mixture, comprising: (a) providing an ethanol-containing biomass mixture; (b) separating the ethanol-containing biomass mixture into: (1) a supernatant having a reduced solids content relative to the ethanol-containing biomass mixture; and (2) a solids portion; to remove at least a portion of the solids contained in the ethanol-containing biomass mixture; (c) separating the supernatant into: (1) an overhead aqueous ethanol stream containing at least part ethanol from the supernatant; and (2) one or more bottom streams; (d) repeating step (c) using the bottom streams as the supernatant; (e) feeding the supernatant from step (b) or bottom streams remaining into a distillation column to remove as the overhead aqueous ethanol stream at least a portion of the ethanol entrained in the supernatant from step (b) or the bottom streams; and (f) dehydrating the overhead aqueous ethanol stream in a distillation column to provide ethanol; wherein the ethanol-containing biomass mixture in step (a) has a viscosity of at least 500 cP.