Engineers India Limited (EIL) has been granted a patent by the Indian Patent Office for its innovative design titled “Distillation Column Internals Design for 2G Ethanol BioRefinery with Very Low Lignin Biomass Feed.” Notably, this is one of the fastest patents ever awarded to EIL, having been issued in under two years.
According to the company, this patent has enabled EIL to establish its presence in Bio-technologies with a carbon-negative footprint. With this milestone, EIL is well poised to offer Net Zero technologies to bio-refineries and in-situ conventional refineries across the oil and gas industry.
The patented design provides a novel solution to one of the most critical challenges in 2G ethanol production – handling lignin-laden ethanol broths during distillation. The innovation enables efficient ethanol recovery and purification from complex fermentation broths, adaptability to diverse biomass feedstocks used across India, improved reliability and reduced downtime in 2G bio-refinery and contribution to India’s Ethanol Blending Programme (EBP).
Also, EIL was recently granted a patent for its cutting-edge innovation of “an Air Distribution Duct System for a Fired Heater System”. The design, named “EngUniflowChakra”, has been invented to streamline the air distribution in a fired heater system and overcome other drawbacks of conventional designs.
This system ensures uniform air distribution to each burner of a fired heater without the need for Expansion Joints, thereby reducing maintenance costs and simplifying manufacturing processes. Moreover, the new design, followed by certain geometric rules, eliminates the necessity of CFD modelling and costly internal duct modifications, further enhancing cost-effectiveness.
