process for recovering a protein-containing material, process for preparing an animal feed composition, animal feed composition, apparatus for producing ethanol and a protein-containing fermentation agent, protein-containing material, process for recovering a protein-containing material and apparatus for produce ethanol
A process for recovering a proteinaceous material from a fermentable organic material, comprising: (i) forming an aqueous mixture of a fermentable organic material and a fermentation agent capable of fermenting the organic material to produce ethanol, wherein the organic material is a vegetable material containing protein; (ii) fermenting the aqueous mixture to produce ethanol; (iii) recovering from the fermented aqueous mixture an ethanol stream which is rich in ethanol and a co-product stream comprising unfermented organic material, fermentation agent and an aqueous solution of dissolved solids in water; (iv) subjecting the co-product stream to a first separation stage to recover a first stream rich in the unfermented organic material and a second stream rich in the fermentation agent suspended in the aqueous solution; and (v) subjecting the first stream to a protein recovery step in which at least part of the fibre in the unfermented organic material is separated from the unfermented organic material to provide a protein rich material and a residual fibre containing less protein than the rich material.