Patent ID: 8658845

Claim:
A continuous SMB process for the recovery of ethanol from a biomass effluent stream from a fermentor, said biomass effluent stream comprising water, ethanol, at least one associated oxygenate, acetic acid, and suspended solids, wherein said SMB process having a desorption zone, a rectification zone, an adsorption zone, and a regeneration zone as SMB zones, wherein each SMB zone has an upper portion and a bottom portion and wherein the desorption zone, the rectification zone, the adsorption zone and the regeneration zone, each comprise one or more serially-linked adsorbent beds and each adsorbent bed containing a stationary phase adsorbent selective for the adsorption of ethanol and said associated oxygenate, said SMB process comprising: a. passing the biomass effluent stream to a pretreatment zone comprising a denaturation zone and a filtration zone and in the denaturation zone denaturating the biomass effluent stream to provide a denaturated biomass effluent stream and in the filtration zone filtering the denaturated biomass effluent stream through a filter having a filter size of less than or equal to 5 microns and adjusting pH to between about 5 and about 10 to provide a treated biomass effluent stream comprising water, at least one associated oxygenate, acetic acid and soluble biomass; b. introducing the treated biomass effluent stream having a concentration of ethanol and the associated oxygenate being less than about 15 wt-% in water to the upper portion of the adsorption zone and withdrawing a raffinate stream comprising water and a minor portion of ethanol from the bottom portion of the adsorption zone; c. passing a desorbent stream in a desorbent flow direction to the upper portion of the desorption zone and withdrawing a desorbent zone effluent stream from the bottom of the desorption zone and recovering a portion of the desorption effluent stream as an extract stream comprising ethanol, said associated oxygenate, acetic acid and a minor portion of water; d. passing a remaining portion of the desorption effluent stream to the upper portion of the rectification zone and withdrawing a rectification zone effluent; e. combining the rectification zone effluent with the treated biomass effluent stream prior to introducing the treated biomass effluent stream to the upper portion of the adsorption zone; f. isolating a regeneration zone and passing a hot regeneration stream at a regeneration temperature to the upper portion of the regeneration zone and withdrawing a spent regeneration stream from the bottom portion of the regeneration zone and cooling the spent regeneration stream to provide a cooled spent regeneration stream; g. passing the extract stream to a recovery zone to provide an ethanol product stream and an associated oxygenate product stream; and, h. indexing the adsorbent beds sequentially in a direction which is counter current to the desorbent flow direction.