Patent ID: 8604089

Claim:
A method for converting organic materials into ethanol comprising: creating a primary syngas stream; in a syngas compressor, raising the pressure of a compressor inlet stream comprising at least a portion of the primary syngas stream to a predefined level, thereby outputting a compressed gas stream; recycling gas within a main gas recycle loop, comprising the steps of: providing a gas recycle compressor of sufficient power to circulate gas through the main gas recycle loop; within an alcohol synthesis reactor comprising a catalyst, in fluid communication with the syngas compressor, taking a reactor inlet stream comprising at least a portion of a combined recycle gas stream as an input and producing an effluent comprising unconverted syngas and a mixture of reaction products including alcohols and water; in a recycle separator, separating the effluent into a first mixed-alcohol stream rich in water and alcohols, and a gas recycle stream rich in unconverted syngas; at a mixing point, mixing at least a portion of the gas recycle stream with at least a portion of the compressed syngas to create the combined recycle gas stream; and separating at least a portion of the first mixed-alcohol stream into a number of streams comprising: an ethanol stream comprising primarily ethanol; a water stream comprising primarily water; a methanol stream comprising primarily methanol; and a heavy alcohol stream comprising primarily propanol and heavier alcohols.