Patent 7497955 was granted and assigned to Nalco (company) on March, 2009 by the United States Patent and Trademark Office.
A method dewatering thin stillage process streams generated in the processing of grain to ethanol comprising adding to the process streams an effective flocculating amount of an anionic copolymer comprising acrylic acid sodium salt, methacrylic acid sodium salt or 2-acrylamido-2-methyl-1-propanesulfonic acid sodium salt to form a mixture of water and flocculated solids; and separating the water from the flocculated solids using a dewatering device.