Thin Stillage

By fermenting the sugars from biomass feedstock such as corn, wheat, barley, rye, sugar cane or sugar beets, ethanol is produced and subsequently recovered by distillation.  The remaining biomass is known as stillage, is usually converted into animal feed due to the high protein content and collected through centrifugation.  The dissolved solids not recovered in centrifugation process is referred to as thin stillage, which is commonly concentrated utilizing evaporation.  As this is a high energy process, alternate technology such as crossflow membranes at concentrating the remaining solids and other miscellaneous materials to yield a clear permeate essentially l free from suspended solids and high solids retentate stream.  This methodology requires significantly less energy, improves recovery of   solids that can be recycled back to animal feed and improves the economics of the entire process.