Robert Colby Harper

US Patent:

8110384, Feb 7, 2012

Filed:

Dec 21, 2007

Appl. No.:

11/962801

Inventors:

Robert E. Harper - Bakersfield CA, US

Assignee:

KB Energy, LLC - Bakersfield CA

International Classification:

C12P 7/06
C12P 7/08
C12P 7/10
C12P 5/00
C12P 1/04
C12P 1/02
C12P 7/14

US Classification:

435165, 435132, 435161, 435162, 435163, 435166, 435170, 435171

Abstract:

A process and system for converting animal waste to useful biofuel products, and more particularly a process and system for converting excrement from lactating dairy cattle to a combination of ethanol, methane, carbon dioxide and fertilizer is presented. The system uses a continuous process to place the animal waste into an aqueous mixture with a starter sugar and a digestive microorganism into a heated anaerobic digester. The products of the reactions within the digester include methane, which is extracted in a gaseous form, and ethanol and carbon dioxide, which are separated out of an aqueous solution in a distillation column. The water from the solution is recycled and the solid residue remaining in the digester is dried in a rotary kiln and granulated to form a fertilizer material.