Process for producing volatile organic compounds from biomass material

1. A method for the recovery of a volatile organic compound from a biomass material comprising:

introducing a biomass material to a compartment of a solventless recovery system, wherein the biomass material contains one or more volatile organic compounds;

contacting the biomass material with a superheated vapor stream in the compartment to vaporize at least a portion of an initial liquid content in the biomass material, said superheated vapor stream comprising at least one volatile organic compound;

separating a vapor component from a solid component of the heated biomass material, said vapor component comprising at least one volatile organic compound; and

retaining at least a portion of the vapor component for use as at least part of the superheated vapor stream.

2. The method of claim 1 further comprising maintaining the superheated vapor stream at a target temperature.

3. The method of claim 2 wherein at least a portion of the superheated vapor stream has a temperature in the range of about 104 degrees C. to about 372 degrees C.

4. The method of claim 2 wherein the maintaining step comprises using a heat exchange component coupled to the compartment.

5. The method of claim 4 wherein a thermal energy source of the heat exchange component does not directly contact the introduced biomass material.

6. The method of claim 1 further comprising introducing a fraction of the vapor component to a distillation column.

7. The method of claim 6 wherein the at least one volatile organic compound is ethanol, said method further comprising the step of purifying at least a portion of the product from the distillation column to produce an enriched ethanol product stream having an ethanol content of greater than about 99% wt.

8. The method of claim 7 wherein said enriched ethanol product stream is used as a component in an automotive gasoline composition.

9. The method of claim 1 wherein the initial liquid content is up to about 80 wt % based on the biomass material.

10. The method of claim 1 wherein the initial liquid content comprises from about 2 wt % to about 50 wt % ethanol based on the initial liquid content.

11. The method of claim 1 wherein the step of separating the gas vapor further comprises directing at least a portion of the vapor component from the compartment as a stream of vapor component.

12. The method of claim 11 further comprising the step of obtaining a volatile organic compound recovery target by controlling the flow rate of the stream of vapor component exiting the system.

13. The method of claim 1 wherein at least a portion of the solid component exiting the solventless recovery system has a temperature of less than about 50 degrees C.

14. The method of claim 1 wherein the compartment is pressurized and has a pressure in a range from about 0.06 bar gauge to about 16 bar gauge (barg).

15. The method of claim 1 wherein the biomass material comprises a crop selected from the group consisting of sorghum, sugar cane, corn, tropical corn, sugar beet, energy cane, and any combination thereof.

16. The method of claim 1 wherein the biomass material is generated by adding to the biomass at least one additive, wherein said at least one additive comprises a microbe, and optionally, an acid and/or an enzyme; and storing the prepared biomass material for at least about 24 hours in a storage facility to allow for the production of at least one volatile organic compound from at least a portion of the sugar.