Abstract: The disclosed invention is an improved method for treating ethanol distillation still bottoms by recovering, through solids separation and pressurized membrane filtration, pure water from still bottoms for human consumption or reuse, and concentrating the solids with beneficial properties recovered before anaerobic digestion. The invention is an improved process because it can reduce the volume of solids to manage, recovers the water from the fermentation still bottoms while pasteurized, maintains the chemical and physical properties of solids for beneficial property recovery, improves ethanol and energy efficiency, and results in clean discharge to the environment including carbon dioxide recovery. A bioreactor produces a gas rich in methane fuel from the concentrate to power the pressurized filtration process and an aqueous ammonia solution to recover or recycle.

Abstract: The disclosed invention is an improved method for treating ethanol distillery discharge by recovering, through pressurized membrane filtration, pure water from still bottoms for human consumption and concentrating the solids before anaerobic fermentation. The invention is an improved process because it retains the heat to operate at high temperatures and recovers the water from the fermentation still bottoms while pasteurized in a sanitary manner and simultaneously concentrates the solids for digestion in a completely stirred tank reactor at thermophilic temperatures. The reactor produces a gas rich in methane fuel to power the pressurized filtration process, produces a reduced volume of reactor waste to manage, and an aqueous ammonia solution to recycle to the process. This invention improves environmental quality, conserves energy and produces a beverage of reliable source and quality.

Abstract: The present invention concerns the isolation of plasmids from extremely thermophilic anaerobic microorganisms and their use in genetic transformation of thermophilic and mesophilic microorganisms. More particular the invention concerns the use of thermostable plasmid vectors as tools for creating shuttle vectors for genetic transformation of extremely thermophilic anaerobic microorganisms.