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Production Internship Project Report on Multifeed Distillery Plant Based on

Rice/Grains as Raw Material

Technical Report · June 2021

DOI: 10.13140/RG.2.2.25479.32167

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GWALIOR DISTILLERIES PRIVATE LIMITED,GWALIOR.
Department of Production

Internship Project Report on

Multifeed Distillery Plant Based on Rice/Grains as Raw Material.

In partial fulfilment of the requirement for the award of the Internship

Certification and Recommadation Certification (April-May 2021)

UNDER THE GUIDANCE OF

Mr. MAHENDRA SHARMA

General Manager, Gwalior Distilleries Private Limited, Gwalior

Submitted by:
Rishav Saraswat (0901CM181040)
Madhav Institute of Technology and Science, Gwalior.
Rishavsaraswat88@gmail.com

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 GWALIOR DISTILLERIES PRIVATE LIMITED, GWALIOR.
Department of Production

Certificate
This is certify that Rishav Saraswat, student of Madhav Institute of Technology and
Science Gwalior (M.P) has satisfactorily completed Internship Project Report on "
Multifeed Distillery Plant Based on Rice/Grains as Raw Material " for the
fulfilment of Gwalior Distilleries Pvt. Ltd Norms. In this Volume, I have submitted a
satisfactory report about Production Internship Project in the academic year 2021.

Under the Guidance of

Mr. MAHENDRA SHARMA

General Manager, Gwalior Distilleries Private Limited, Gwalior

Mr. MAHENDRA SHARMA

General Manager

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 CANDIDATE’S DECLARATION

I, Rishav Saraswat, hereby declare that the work presented in this report is a
record of our own work carried out under the guidance of Mr. MAHENDRA
SHARMA, Gwalior Distilleries Pvt. Ltd, Gwalior.

We have not submitted the matter presented in this report for any other degree
or diploma or any other organization.

Date – 22 May 2021

Place – Gwalior Rishav Saraswat

MITS, Gwalior

Mr. MAHENDRA SHARMA

Gwalior Distilleries Pvt. Ltd, Gwalior.

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 ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

It is with great pleasure that, I am present this Internship project report on "
Multifeed Distillery Plant Based on Rice/Grains as Raw Material ". I
gratefully acknowledge our profound indebtedness towards our Mr.
MAHENDRA SHARMA, Gwalior Distilleries Pvt. Ltd, Gwalior. for this valuable
guidance, excellent supervision and constant encouragement during the entire
course of work.

I am also grateful to Mr. Ankur Sharma and Mr. Shailendra for having
provided excellent atmosphere in the Gwalior Distilleries Pvt. Ltd, Gwalior.,
which made the endeavour possible.

Last, but not the least I would like to thank our beloved parents for their
encouragement and co-operation during the time of working through this report.
Also, thanks to all the friends for their encouragement and support.

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 TABLE OF CONTENT

S. No. Topic Page

No.

1 Abstract 6

2 Introduction 7-8

3 Theory Based on Study 9-12

4 Procedure 13-17

5 Energy and Water 18

Conservation
6 Applications 19

7 References 20

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 ABSTRACT

The use of alcohol as a drink is an age-old story. It appears that in India the
technique for fermentation and distillation was available even in the Vedic
times. Alcohol is an integral part of the Ayurvedic system of medicine also.

Carew & Co. Ltd. set up the first distillery in the country at Cownpore (Kanpur)
in 1805 for manufacture of Rum for the British army. The technique of
fermentation, distillation and blending of alcoholic beverages was developed in
India on the lines of practices adopted overseas, particularly in Europe. The
original use of alcoholic fermentation was of course for preserving fruit juices.
Now the fermentation is adapted for the preparation of fermented grain
beverages and then distilled beverages. The utilization of Ethanol, for industrial
use is a recent phenomenon. It became important towards the end of the Second
World War.

When large-scale production of alcoholic beverages was taken up, various

Governments found that alcohol was a good source for increasing government
revenue through collection of tax. When synthetic organic chemistry advanced
rapidly, about a century ago, alcohol became an indispensable chemical for this
industry. However extensive manufacturing of alcohol for industrial use was
hampered due to excessive taxes. The problem was to device a means for
conserving government’s interest in tax collection on potable alcohol and at the
same time making alcohol for industrial use relatively free of tax. Thus different
governments introduced the process of denaturation of alcohol for industrial
use.

During the Second World War, the demand for the industrial alcohol increased
4-5 times, above the prewar period, due to the production of smokeless powder
for weapons. The imports of molasses were hampered due to war conditions.
This leads to evolving the process of grain fermentation for meeting the
requirement of Ethanol.

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 INTRODUCTION

All spirits go through at least two procedures - fermentation and distillation.

Fermentation is where all alcohol is created, distillation is where the alcohol is
separated and removed. In order for fermentation to occur, two things are
needed: a raw material in liquid form that contains sugar, followed by the
addition of yeast. Yeast is a living organism that feeds on sugar; the bi-product
of this consumption is alcohol and carbon dioxide (CO 2).

A simple formula for fermentation is:

YEAST + SUGAR = ALCOHOL + C02

Distilling is essentially the process whereby a liquid made of two or more parts
is separated into smaller parts of desired purity by the addition and subtraction
of heat from the mixture. The vapours/liquids distilled will separated other
ingredients that have lower boiling points. Distilled spirits are produced from
agricultural raw materials such as rice, grapes, other fruit, sugar-cane, molasses,
potatoes, cereals, etc.

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As a result, for ALL spirits, the distillation process transforms the raw materials
to the extent that they are no longer present in the final spirit drink. This was
demonstrated conclusively when EFSA agreed that allergenic protein from raw
materials was not present in spirit drinks.

To conclude, distilling is an art which requires mastering many different factors:

the selection of grains or fruits, the water used, the yeast, the climate in which
the drink is produced, the shape of the pot still, the selection of the barrel, the
time spent in the barrel (for those products which are matured), the blend recipe
of the Master Distiller – all of these define the specific style and ultimate
flavour of your favorite spirit drinks!

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 THEORY BASED ON STUDY

• Fermentation

Molasses, diluted with water to the desired concentration is metered

continuously into a single tank fermenter. Additives likes’ urea (in the form of
pellets or prills) and defoaming oil are also introduced in the fermenter as
required. There is an automatic foam level sensing and dosing system for
defoaming oil.

Every kilogram of alcohol produced, generates about 290 k cals of heat. This
excess heat is removed by continuous circulation of fermenting wash through an
external plate heat exchanger called the Fermenter Car. The fermenter
temperature is always maintained between 32 and 35 deg. C, the range optimum
for efficient fermentation.

The yeast for the fermentation is initially (i.e. during startup of the plant)
developed in the Propagation Section described further on. Once propagated, a
viable cell population of about 500 million cells/ml is maintained by yeast
recycling and continuous aeration of the fermenter. Yeast cell vitality which is
usually above 70% may, in times of stress. (Such as prolonged shut-downs)
drop to 50% without affecting the fermentation.

• Yeast Recycling :

The yeast in the fermented wash is removed as 45 to 555 v/v slurry, and is
returned to the fermenter. This feature ensures that a high yeast cell
concentration is achieved and maintained in the fermenter. By recirculating
grown, active yeast, sugar that would have otherwise been consumed in yeast
growth is made available for ethanol production, ensuring high process
efficiency.

• Distillation

Clarified or de-yeasted wash flows by gravity to the propagation vessel no. III,
which during continuous production, operates as an intermediate wash tank.
From here, fermented wash is pumped to the wash preheater, which uses
vapours from the rectifying column to preheat wash. Further heating is done in
an exchange of heat with weak wash and spent wash.
Preheated wash then enters the degasifying column of the distillation section.

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• Primary Distillation

The CO2 and the degasifying section help remove the CO2 and other non-
condensable entrained in the wash. The wash column is first column in the
distillation section. It is also called the analyzer. Wash is boiled in this column
with steam either supplied as live steam from the boiler (after pressure reduction
and de-superheating) or from a reboiler which generates steam by evaporating
effluent wash.

Alcohol in wash vaporizes and is carried, along with water vapour, to the top of
the wash column from where it goes to the rectification column. As wash travels
down the analyzer, it is progressively ‘stripped’ of its alcohol content. At a
point in the column, where the alcohol concentration is 0.5 to 1.0% v/v, a
portion of the wash is drawn off. This is called weak wash.

• Weak Wash Recycling :

Weak wash recycling of weak wash helps maintain the desired level of
dissolved solids in the fermenter, so that an adequately high osmotic pressure is
achieved. Osmotic pressure and the concentration of alcohol in the fermenter,
together keep off infection and minimize sugar losses. Weak wash recycling
also reduces the quantity of effluent spent wash and reduces the process water
requirement of the plant.

Spent wash is the wash from which all alcohol has been removed; this emerges
from the bottom of the wash column at about 105 deg C. Some of the heat is
recovered to preheat fermented wash entering the degasifying column.

Spent wash may also be passed through a forced circulation reboiler to generate
vapours. This concentrates the effluent and reduces the volume further.

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• Propagation The propagation section is a feeder unit to the fermenter. Yeast,
either Saccharomyeescereviseae or Schizosaccharomyeespombe, etc (the choice
being determined by other process parameters, mainly the downstream effluent
treatment system) is grown in 3 stages. The first two stages are designed for
aseptic growth. Propagation vessel III develops the inoculum using pasteurized
molasses solution as the medium.

• CO2 Scrubbing and Recovery

The carbon-di-oxide produced during fermentation is scrubbed with water in

packed-bed scrubber, to recover alcohol. The water from the scrubber is
returned to the fermenter. About 1.0% of the total alcohol production is saved
by scrubbing the fermenter off gas. In plants where it is desired to recover
carbon-di-oxide, a part of the wash is drawn into a separate vessel and is aerated
there.

• Fermentation Parameters (Typical)

The pH of the fermenter is maintained between 4.0 & 4.8 usually without
addition of any acid. The alcohol concentration is maintained between 7.0 & 7.5
% v/v, unless a highly concentrate effluent is to be produced. To reduce the
effluent volume, the fermenter is operated at a very high dissolved solids level
by increasing the proportion of weak wash recycle. Under these conditions,
alcohol concentration is reduced to between 5.5 to 6.0% v/v.

• Flexibility :

This process accords tremendous flexibility to the operator. Process conditions

and plant design can be varied to suit individual requirements of alcohol quality,
effluent concentration and characteristics. This unit can give spent wash suitable
for use in any effluent treatment process.

• Wash Clarification:

Fermented wash is then clarified in wash settling tank with proper settling time
and overflow of clarified wash is collected in Clarified wash tank/buffer tank
further feed to distillation. To minimum losses/alcohol recovery in wash
clarification is taken care by further clarification.

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 PROCEDURE

There are many unit operations are to be done :-

1. Milling

Grain is fed to the process by a grain transfer conveyor from the grain storage
silos, which moves it from the adjacent grain feed elevator. The scalped grain
passes into a surge bin that has an operating capacity of approximately 4 hours.
The flow is controlled out of the surge bin by a weigh feeder, which moves the
grain by the magnetic separator to the hammer mill where it is ground to a
consistent particle size distribution. Any dust produced in the milling operation
is collected and recycled back into the process using the dust collection system.

2. Mashing, Cooking & Liquefaction

The milled grain is transferred by the meal conveyor, under flow ratio control,
to the mash mingle, where it is mixed with process water and heated mashing
water from a hot well. The flow rates of process water and the backset fraction
of heated mashing water are also under flow ratio control. The meal slurry is
then discharged by gravity from the mash mingle to a mash mixing tank. The
primary purpose of the mash mixing tank is to provide surge capacity in the
cooking system and to allow for pre-liquefaction of the starch, if necessary, for
viscosity control. Also, caustic or anhydrous ammonia is added for pH control,
if necessary. Mash from the mash mixing tank is pumped by a cooker feed
pump to a jet cooker, where 150 psig steam is injected under temperature
control, raising the mash temperature to the sterilization temperature of about
126.7 °C. Injection of steam provides sterilizing of the slurry in about 10
minutes. Mash leaves the cooker and is cooled to about 85 °C by flashing in a
liquefaction tank. The flash vapor is recovered as a source of energy for stillage
evaporation. In addition, provisions are made to add backset (thin stillage
recycle) from the solids separation area, evaporator condensate and rectifier
bottoms to the hot well as part of the hot process water make-up for the mash
mingler. Liquefying enzyme is added to the mash in the liquefaction tank to
begin the hydrolysis of the previously gelatinized starch. After liquefaction,
back set can be added to the mash to lower the pH. A mash cooler pump pumps
the mash from the base of the liquefaction tank through mash coolers. Cooling
tower water provides for primary cooling to ultimately reduce the mash
temperature to about 32°C.

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3. Fermentation and CIP System

The cooled mash flows to one of a battery of 4-6 fermenters. Previously

hydrated and actively growing yeast as well as saccharifying enzymes, nutrients
and industrial antibiotics are added to the fermenter during filling. The
fermenter contents are recirculated by fermenter pumps, through fermenter
coolers to remove heat generated by fermentation. The carbon dioxide generated
during fermentation is vented to the ethyl alcohol absorber. When fermentation
is complete, the beer is transferred to the beerwell via the fermenter pumps. The
beerwell, agitated by the beerwell agitator, provides surge capacity between
fermentation and distillation. Cleaning and sterilizing the fermenters, fermenter
coolers, mash coolers and related process piping is accomplished by the
automated CIP system.

4. Distillation

The beerwell serves as a surge tank connecting the simultaneous

saccharification /fermentation system with distillation. The contents of the
beerwell are kept circulated by the beer well agitator. The beer, which consists
of approximately 10.0% w/w ethyl alcohol.

The vacuum distillation has many advantages over conventional distillation

atmospheric distillation plants like lower energy requirement, very good quality
alcohol and less scaling of the distillation trays due to sludge. The vacuum
distillation produces ethyl alcohol of international quality standards and there is
a lot of demand of ethyl alcohol from the vacuum distillation process.

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The Extra Neutral Alcohol produced from this latest technology will meet most
of the international quality standards for ethyl alcohol like US Pharmacopoeia,
British Pharmacopoeia and Japanese standards.

The multi pressure distillation approximately requires 50% less steam as

compared with the conventional atmospheric distillation technologies. The
vacuum distillation consists of distillation columns with high efficiency column
trays, condensers, re-boilers, vacuum pumps and reflux pumps. A closed loop
cooling tower system with an induced draft-cooling tower with circulation
pumps is also provided to ensure higher cooling efficiency and to minimize
water wastages.

In this multi pressure distillation ethyl alcohol is separated and concentrated

using principal of fractional distillation. This is based on difference in boiling
points of volatile compounds in mixture. There are six columns in the system
Primary column also called Mash column, Rectifier column, Hydro extractive
distillation column, Refining column, Aldehyde Column and Fuel Oil Column

The Primary or Mash column is operated under vacuum and it is heated using
the vapours from the Rectifier column, which is operated under a slightly higher
pressure. The vacuum operation of the Primary column will help in reducing the
overall energy requirement and also improve the product quality.

Due to vacuum operation of the Primary column the scaling of the column trays
is minimized and plant can be operated without stoppage for a longer duration
as compared with atmospheric plant.

The fermented mash is preheated using a beer heater at the top of the Primary
column and followed by a plate heat exchanger and finally feed to the top of
Primary column. The pre heating of mash in two stages recovers energy and
saves steam required for the distillation. The mash runs down the Primary
column trays from tray to tray, while vapor goes up in the column contacting
the mash at each tray.

As a result of this contact and boiling, ethyl alcohol and other impurities along
with some water are stripped in the form of vapours and remaining mash in the
form of vinasse (effluent) is disposed off from the bottom of the Primary
column for ETP.

When the vapours of ethyl alcohol and other volatile compounds reach the top,
they are separated out from the top of Primary column and are then condensed
in beer heater and other Primary condensers. The heat is supplied by the

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Rectifies vapours from the Re-boilers provided at the bottom of the Primary
column.

One or two reboilers are provided at the bottom of the Primary column to
facilitate the heat transfer from Rectifier column vapour to Primary column. The
vapours from Primary top condensed in the above condensers are collected and
fed to the Hydro extractive distillation column for purification. The ethyl
alcohol streams from other columns are also diluted with soft water and are fed
to Hydro extractive distillation column via a feed preheater (plate heat
exchanger). A Reboiler is installed at the bottom of the Hydro extractive
distillation column. Impurities such as Aldehydes and Fusel oil are removed
from the top of the Hydro extractive distillation column and are fed to Fusel oil
concentration column, while dilute ethyl alcohol along with fewer impurities,
are taken from the bottom of the Hydro extractive distillation column and fed to
Rectifier column middle. Steam is fed to Hydro extractive distillation column
through Reboiler.

A Reboiler is installed at the bottom of the Rectifier column, which heats the
process liquid i.e. alcohol and water received from the Hydro extractive
distillation column, indirectly with the help of steam. In the Rectifier column,
the ethyl alcohol is concentrated to 96 % by refluxing the Rectifier reflux liquid.
Extra Neutral Alcohol (ENA) is tapped from the top of Rectifier column, which
is directly sent to Refining column for removal of other low boiling impurities.
While the bottom product of the Rectifier column called spent lees is drained
off. The higher alcohols also called light and heavy fusel oils are removed from
the middle portion of the Rectifier column so that they are separated from Extra
Neutral Alcohol.

Light and Heavy fusel oil from Rectifier column and top cut from Hydro
extractive distillation column plus ester cut from Hydro extractive distillation
column is fed to Fusel oil concentration column.

The steam is delivered from the bottom of the Fusel oil Column to allow the
desired etc. are concentrated near middle portion of Fusel oil concentration
column and can be removed. It is separated in the Fusel Oil Decanter where
sufficient higher concentration and by addition of water and based on density
difference. While the bottom product called spent lees is drained off. The top
product from the Fusel Oil Column is cooled in the cooler and sent to storage as
Technical Alcohol.

The Refining column is fed with the ENA from the Rectifier column, which is
boiled off in the Refining column to remove the low boiling impurities like
methanol and mercaptants. Extra Neutral Alcohol (ENA) is tapped from the

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bottom of the Refining column, which is cooled upto 30 0C, by passing through
ENA cooler. The impure ethyl alcohol, which contains many impurities, is
drawn from the top of the Refining column and cooled in the cooler and sent to
storage as Technical Alcohol. Alternatively diluting with soft water in Aldehyde
Column as and when required can further purify some of these Technical
Alcohol streams.

Both fermentation and distillation are operated with PLC computer controls
system. This will help in maintaining the parameters consistent and without any
fluctuations. Most modern distillery plants use computer system for controlling
their parameters.

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 ENERGY AND WATER CONSERVATION

The consumption of energy is a vital factor in any industry. Energy saving may
be achieved in the following manner:

• The process involves multi pressure system which is heat saving & efficient
system

• Insulation of all columns, pipelines, vessels are essential.

• Preheating of wash

• The wash feed temperature to analyzer column can be raised to 80-850C by

efficient use of beer heater and heat exchangers; besides the heating of boiler
feed water with excess spent wash can also be raised to 80-850C. Substantial
reduction in steam consumption may be achieved with maintaining a proper
reflux ratio.

• Condensers.

• High alcohol % in wash can result in substantial reduction in steam

consumption.

• Reducing the quantity of spent wash generation through multistage

evaporation by using steam as heating media. Therefore, less steam is required
for integrated evaporation.

• It is possible to recycle of low strength waste generated i.e. process

condensate, spent lees and other streams in distillery after treating through
condensate polishing unit. It will help to reduce the consumption of fresh water
for process and nonprocess applications.

• During spent wash treatment the concentrated spent wash is burnt with support
fuel bagasse or coal. Due to concentrated spent wash, fresh fuel (bagasse)
requirement is reduced.

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 APPLICATONS

The pollution of distillery stillage depends on the quality of the substrates and
the unit operations used for alcohol production, which means that the
characteristics of stillage can differ between distilleries. For every liter of
alcohol produced, molasses-based distilleries usually generate about 8–15 L of
stillage characterized by high chemical oxygen demand (COD) and biochemical
oxygen demand (BOD). The COD and BOD values of this stillage are due to
the presence of a number of organic compounds, such as polysaccharides,
proteins, polyphenols, waxes, and melanoidin. Distillery stillage contains about
2% of natural products of sugar and amino acid condensation known as
melanoidins, which contain a lot of dark brown pigment. These substances lead
to environmental pollution and have antioxidant activity, which makes them
toxic to microorganisms that are present in wastewater treatment processes.

Distillery stillage can be considered a pollutant, but it has also been used in
agriculture. For this application, distillery wastewater is potentially valuable,
but it also poses problems and has negative effects on the environment. At high
doses (> 250 m3/ha), the use of distillery stillage is harmful to plant growth and
soil properties, but its application at lower doses (125 m3/ha) significantly
improves the sprout, growth, and yield of dry land plants, due to its content of
nutrients (P, N, K, and Ca). Moreover, the combined application of distillery
stillage and natural organic compounds (cattle manure, green leaf manure, and
bio-compost) is suitable under dry land conditions.

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 REFERENCES

 Bharagava, R. N., & Chandra, R. (2010). Biodegradation of the

major color containing compounds in distillery wastewater by an
aerobic bacterial culture and characterization of their
metabolites, Biodegradation.

 Balat, M., & Balat, H. (2009). Recent trends in global production and
utilization of bio-ethanol fuel- Applied Energy

 Distillation process for a cascade and azeotropic reaction system:

Carbonylation of ethanol with dimethyl carbonate. Chemical
Engineering Science. 2001

 Process Synthesis for Fuel Ethanol Production By C.A. Cardona,

O.J. Sanchez, L.F. Gutierrez

 Agreda VH, Partin LR, Heise WH (1990) High-purity methyl acetate

via reactive distillation. Chem Eng Prog 86: 40-46.

 Hanson, N, Lynn, F. and Scott, D., Multi-effect extractive distillation

for separating aqueous azeotropes. Industrial Engineering Chemical
Process Des. Dev., 25, p. (1988).

 An Overview of Bioethanol Production From Algae By Didem

Özçimen and Benan İnan

 Doherty, M. F. and Malone, M. F., Conceptual Design of Distillation

Systems. McGraw Hill. New York (1995).

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