Switzerland-based LiYF 2G BioEthanol is a nascent ethanol technology startup developing a platform that, like other companies before it, aspires to make second-generation ethanol viable. Hangama Wanner, founder and CEO, tells Ethanol Producer Magazine about the company's journey, and her optimistic vision of “Life in Your Fuel,” the essence behind the company’s acronym, LiYF. &nbsp;&nbsp;With a background in banking and finance, Wanner's transition into the ethanol sector was spurred by a desire to make a meaningful impact. Her attendance at the World Economic Forum, and insights gained about the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) fueled an interest in converting waste into fuel. A significant four-year investment into second-generation ethanol technology development began in 2019 and has now achieved a level of technology readiness, Wanner says, that makes it poised for market deployment.Developed initially at Sasit Lab, another venture by Wanner, LiYF’s technology is designed to transform various agricultural and forestry residues, like rice straw and corn stover, into second-generation ethanol, while also producing valuable coproducts like fertilizer and protein.&nbsp;LiYF has meticulously researched cellulosic ethanol, aligning its work with sustainability commitments and focusing on developing technology that fosters both environmental and economic resilience. Wanner says innovative features like metal-organic frameworks, a groundbreaking pretreatment reactor; a pH temperature-control system; and in-house enzyme production could distinguish LiYF’s approach.&nbsp;The novel technology is in the patenting process in Europe, the U.S., and Brazil. While awaiting patent approval, Wanner is trying to forge partnerships in the biofuels industry to pilot test LiYF’s technology. “My business model is to have the technology certified [through] third-party validation, and then license the technology,” she says. Negotiations with a prominent Swiss company to test LiYF’s processes and manufacture its pretreatment reactor are ongoing.As LiYF steers through the path of raising awareness via affiliations with biofuel trade associations such as Growth Energy (U.S.), ePure (Europe), and BioFuels Switzerand, Wanner remains hopeful about the global market's need for sustainable solutions and independence from fossil fuel. Moving forward, she aspires to enlighten consumers about ethanol’s value in mitigating carbon emissions and reducing fuel costs. LiYF’s technology, she believes, offers ethanol producers a gateway to explore second-generation ethanol, concurrently assisting governments in attaining energy independence and offering consumers access to a more affordable, low-carbon fuel alternative.Wanner concludes with an invitation to ethanol producers exploring second-generation production to experience the efficacy of LiYF’s technology in their pilot plants. She asserts, "For those investing and working diligently on new or improved processes for cost-saving productivity, trying our technology could open new avenues of opportunity."Author: Katie Schroeder&nbsp; Contact: katie.schroeder@bbiinternational.com

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A Swiss entrepreneur, inspired by global sustainable development goals, has built a cellulosic ethanol company that’s seeking partnerships to upscale her technology with unique innovations.   

Taking Her Plan to Pilot

Each year, several U.S. ethanol plants reinvest in their ability to accept corn with greater efficiency, and in larger amounts. From the receiving technologies streamlining inbound corn to the rural spectacle of the “largest-in-the-world” grain bin being duplicated in Iowa, feedstock-related projects—sometimes coming in waves—are prevalent, practical, and paying off.In 2022, Corn LP, a 72 MMgy plant in north-central Iowa, contracted with PMI, a millwright and lift solutions provider, to make significant improvements for farmers delivering grain to the facility, including adding two dedicated receiving pits. The upgrades also allowed the plant to receive higher-moisture corn when it had previously only been able to take corn under 15.5 percent moisture.&nbsp;During the height of the pandemic in 2021, Glacial Lakes Energy-Aberdeen, a 55 MMgy plant in northern South Dakota, added a 750,000-bushel bin, and installed a new corn dryer. At the company’s nearby Mina facility, GLE is currently undergoing several grain infrastructure projects that will increase storage capacity and increase turnaround times. The plant is building a 1.2-million-bushel storage bin along with a 40,000-bushel-per-hour “super pit” in addition to the expansion of its current wet pit. “We expect those projects to be completed by fall harvest,” GLE told its members in September. &nbsp;In northern Iowa, Golden Grain Energy first made “big” grain bin news roughly two years ago when it installed the “world’s largest grain bin.” The 130 MMgy plant is now working to install a second “world’s largest grain bin,” once again using Sukup Manufacturing and McGough Construction.&nbsp;Two years ago, Mid-Missouri Energy, a 60 MMgy plant, completed the installation of CompuWeigh’s SmartTruck system to increase corn receiving and product load efficiency. It’s the kind of system that’s becoming the standard in an industry increasingly driven to take in massive amounts of feedstock faster, more flexibly, and more intelligently. &nbsp;Smart Receiving&nbsp; CompuWeigh has invested in and continually upgraded its inbound and outbound technology. The company introduced its trademarked SmartTruck and SmartFlow technologies during the ethanol boom years of the early 2000s. Tim Ciucci, vice president of sales marketing for CompuWeigh, recently spoke to us in between visits to ethanol facilities.&nbsp;According to Ciucci, the initial adopters of the CompuWeigh tech were looking to run with as little overhead as possible while also ensuring that hundreds of inbound corn and outbound coproduct trucks could be processed with high efficiency. In 2016, the company introduced a touch-screen terminal it calls SmartTouch, which enables a driver to enter load order numbers and answer FSMA questions from the cab.&nbsp;“Everything we do is very visual, and we get complimented frequently that our user interface is very easy to follow,” Ciucci says.&nbsp;Ciucci and his team have a long list of reasons why producers turn to CompuWeigh. The business case for smart receiving includes enhanced efficiency, safety, accuracy and more. &nbsp;The systems allow farmers to directly deliver corn, milo or stover. It is also more convenient for drivers to process transactions and allows drivers to enter origination ticket numbers, along with field or bin numbers. A reduction of time on site for the drivers is also a positive, Ciucci says, along with the safety aspect related to the drivers and their trucks. The SmartTouch system means no one has to get out of a truck. In most cases, scale ticket errors are avoided. Personnel can also grade inbound feedstock while the drivers are taking care of their part, and there is less distraction in the grading process due to the minimal interaction needed between the scale house operator and the truck driver.&nbsp;One of the newer benefits of the SmartTouch system is the incorporation of &nbsp;RFID tags. Now they are automatically set to the truck and can identify and eliminate the need for any manual weighing in or out. Gone are the worries by ethanol plants of having multiple “white trucks” on the property at the same time, having these trucks get out of order and correlating the incorrect outbound and inbound weights, Ciucci says. RFID technology combined with a traffic eye system eliminates concerns of fraudulent transactions.&nbsp;Cameras are used to capture photos of not only the truck but also the driver’s face. When coproduct trucks check in, there are automatic alerts sent to plant staff via radio text message so they can prepare appropriately. Each transaction creates an electronic audit trail documenting all driver and scale attendant selections.&nbsp;For the most part, ethanol clients using CompuWeigh’s system use the entire capability of the tech. According to Ciucci, the team designs the software and the hardware. In addition to truck systems, their setups can also be installed for rail cars. “We have done a lot of Valero’s and a number of POET’s,” Cuicci says. “They want to know what truck dumped where and when.”&nbsp;The industry is looking to be as efficient as possible, he says, noting that FSMA rules and regulations have become huge. “It is very popular to take a picture of the driver, empty trailer and the truck to make sure it doesn’t have anything hazardous,” he says.CompuWeigh just recently came out with a phone app. It won’t take the place of the touchscreen terminal but it does help. RFID tags hang from the visor of the truck and they work from roughly 8 to 10 feet away. When the truck with the tag comes into the plant, the system automatically knows whose truck it is. The driver can add or change information accordingly.The screen systems themselves have very few moving parts. The printers that provide the paper tickets need maintenance from time to time. Some plants acquire a spare printer. Everything is heated and insulated so rough weather won’t impact the system’s reliability. In high humidity, a heater will turn on in the system to burn off any precipitation.&nbsp;The system takes roughly three months to receive after ordering. An electrician will have to wire the new units in and, after that, a CompuWeigh team of two will spend time at the plant setting up the system and providing training. &nbsp;Ciucci and his team take pride in the fact that using their system is compared to making a coffee at a Casey’s General Store.&nbsp;“Our system is easy to use, follow and train others on,” he says.&nbsp;The team is always developing new versions of the software used on the SmartTouch screens. Twice per year, ethanol clients can get a software upgrade.&nbsp;Of all the key features built into the CompuWeigh suite of products, Ciucci says most ethanol plants are pleased to know their tech interfaces with most accounting systems used at ethanol facilities. Common interfaces include the trademarked products of Agris, AgTech, Intellego, Leverage, Microsoft Dynamics Navision, SAP and SQL Server.&nbsp;Record-Setting Bins&nbsp; Brent Hansen, commercial accounts manager for Sukup, says his team has been servicing and supporting the ethanol industry for several years. The company has worked with many of the large trade groups and has always represented the pre-process, grain receiving, handling and storage sector at well-known ethanol industry events.&nbsp;Sukup was the first company ever to design, manufacture and build a 1-million-bushel bin—135-feet in diameter—then the first to build a 2-million-bushel bin—156-feet in diameter. Now, with the Golden Grain Energy bin, the company has built a 165-foot diameter, 2.25-million-bushel bin dubbed “Binzilla.” At 30 rings, it stands nearly 160-feet high.&nbsp;“It is very special to our company, our team and our dealer network to showcase what the capabilities of Sukup are to design and manufacture the record-breaking bins,” Hansen says.&nbsp;Prior to its unprecedented work in Mason City, Sukup broke records in South Dakota. In 2019, the company showcased a big bin (for that time) at Ringneck Energy in Oinda. The grain bins were roughly 105 feet in diameter and stood 25 rings tall.&nbsp;Hansen believes Sukup has stayed relevant for so long because of the company’s ability to work with and listen to its clients. “Over 85 percent of the products we manufacture today we didn’t offer 25 years ago,” he says, explaining how the company has transformed its products and services to match its customers’ needs over time.&nbsp;Most of the employees at Sukup are themselves farmers, or come from farm families or farming communities, Hansen explains. “When the ethanol industry is doing well, rural America is doing well,” he says.&nbsp;Sukup’s bins start out as coils of flat American steel. Their machines form the corrugations, punch the bolt holes and create the curve in the sheets, according to the company. For each ring, precision engineered, galvanized sidewall sheets are used. The design enables less resistance and friction to allow grain to flow more easily. The bin erection process has been made easier and faster by aligning bolt holes properly from the start.&nbsp;And just like those accurately-aligned bolt holes, new projects are expected to start lining up for Hansen and his team in 2024, as ethanol producers continue to reinvest in feedstock storage after a financially sound 2023. Author: Luke Geiver&nbsp;&nbsp; Contact: writer@bbiinternational.com&nbsp;

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As the era of high-tech corn receiving coalesces with the rise of 2-million-plus-bushel grain bins, ethanol plants are becoming known for feedstock receiving and storage systems that are fast, efficient and massive. 

Smarter, Better and Bigger

The largest ethanol producer in Brazil has teamed up with a hydrogen technology company, along with others, to build what is believed to be the world’s first ethanol-to-hydrogen fueling station. Located on Brazil’s University of Sao Paulo campus, by mid-year the pilot plant will begin fueling three buses and a car powered by hydrogen fuel cells. Planning is also underway for a 10-fold scale-up to serve as a demonstration of how the technology could be used in an industrial facility.Raízen and Hytron are behind the project, with several other entities supporting it. The Brazilian National Agency of Petroleum, Natural Gas and Biofuels (ANP) is involved as is the University of Sao Paulo’s Research Center for Greenhouse Gases Innovation, which will validate costs and emissions. The SENAI Institute for Innovation in Biosynthetic and Fibers will conduct computer simulations to optimize the process. And Toyota is provid­ing a Mirai hydrogen fuel cell vehicle to the project, which is being funded through a R$50 million investment by Shell Brasil, in compliance with the RD&amp;I clause established by ANP.&nbsp;In a fuel cell, the electrolytic process of making hydrogen by passing electricity through water gets reversed. Hydrogen and oxygen-rich air are combined with a catalyst in a fuel cell to produce electricity and water. The growing attraction to fuel cell vehicles is largely about the efficiency of electric drives—and water being the only tailpipe emission.&nbsp;In an industrial setting, hydrogen produces three times the power of an equal amount of natural gas, says Hytron’s commercial director Daniel Lopes. But hydrogen isn’t the only useful industrial target. Because the chemical industry is based on organic chemistry—the carbon side—he believes biogenic carbon dioxide will be an important source in the future for chemical companies seeking to defossilize.Founded in 2003, Hytron is a spin-off from the hydrogen laboratory at the University of Campinas in the state of Sao Paulo in southeastern Brazil. By 2014, the company had developed its first pilot-scale ethanol-to-hydrogen unit with industrial components. The company is now part of NEA Group, a global manufacturer of piston and diaphragm compressors. Today, Hytron offers a suite of hydrogen technologies including electrolyzers and steam reformers using biomethane and ethanol feedstocks. The University of Sao Paulo project will be the first “real world” demonstration of its ethanol-to-hydrogen technology.Hytron’s ethanol steam reformer is similar in concept to refinery SMRs (steam methane reformers) that currently supply virtually all the world’s hydrogen used for fuel and chemical production. Using a catalyst, steam (water) is combined with methane (natural gas) to produce hydrogen and carbon monoxide.&nbsp;Hytron’s first-stage reactor combines ethanol and water as steam with the aid of a catalyst to produce steam reformer gas. “The main component is hydrogen,” Lopes explains, “the second is CO—carbon monoxide—and a small percentage of other components. After that, we have two other reactors. In the high temperature shift-reactor we react the CO with water (steam) again and produce CO2 plus hydrogen. After that, we have a PSA system—pressure swing adsorption—for purification of the hydrogen to 99.99 percent.” &nbsp;The University of Sao Paulo fueling station is essentially a pilot-scale project, with a target production of 5 kilos (12 pounds) of hydrogen per hour. The goal is to use 6 liters of ethanol to produce 1 kilo of hydrogen—enough to run a vehicle for 130-150 kilometers, depending on the fuel cell. (Converting to U.S. units and rounding: The unit will make 12 pounds of hydrogen per hour. The goal is to use 1.5 gallons of ethanol to produce 2.5 pounds of hydrogen, which will power a vehicle for 70 to 90 miles.)Hytron estimates the cost of production will be comparable to Brazil’s large SMR units, which Lopes says is due to Hytron’s thermal management. “The magic step is how we manage the heat we have inside the steam reformer. We have up to 80-percent efficiency in our equipment.” As for carbon intensity (CI), he says the potential is there to meet net zero, or even negative CI, largely dependent upon the feedstock and the ability to move towards renewable fuels for transport.Feedstock from Energy Parks&nbsp;&nbsp; The feedstock for the university pilot plant is coming from Raízen (pronounced hi-ee-son). The integrated energy company was formed in 2011 as a joint venture between Royal Dutch Shell and Cosan SA—a large Brazil conglomerate with sugarcane and ethanol production facilities alongside other energy and transportation assets and a wholesale and retail fuel supply network. Today, Raízen serves over 8,000 Shell retail stations and more than 1.6 thousand Shell Select stores in Brazil and Argentina, and another 250 OXXO stores in Brazil (Nós Group).Raízen operates 35 production units, most within what it calls Bioenergy Parks, processing sugarcane from around 1 million hectares (2.47 million acres) of cultivated land into sugar, ethanol and bioenergy. The company produces 3 billion liters (792.51 million gallons) of first-generation ethanol from sugarcane juice. In 2021, the company produced 30 million liters of cellulosic ethanol. Raízen’s second 82 MMly capacity cellulosic ethanol facility came online recently, with more in development. On its website, the company touts its first-generation ethanol as reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 89 percent compared to Brazilian gasoline, and its second-generation ethanol achieving 97 percent fewer emissions. &nbsp;The exact numbers for GHG reductions are dependent on the metrics and methodology used, admits Mateus Lopes, Raízen’s global director for energy transition and investments. “The numbers change, but we like to talk potential,” he says. “When talking about biogenic ethanol, we could deliver something that has a negative footprint. We think this is a key message, independent of whether it is sugarcane or corn ethanol.”&nbsp;The main reason cane ethanol is deemed to have a low CI rating compared to U.S. grain ethanol, he adds, is the former not requiring natural gas to produce steam. “Here in Brazil, we use bagasse to produce steam for our process.” Currently, excess steam capacity is used to generate electricity as a coproduct, which also helps to lower CI, but M. Lopes says weak electricity prices that are projected to continue in the future are behind the company’s decision to divert bagasse from electrical generation to second-generation ethanol production.Ethanol as Hydrogen Carrier Feedstock&nbsp;&nbsp; Future projections also underly Raízen’s interest in hydrogen. “Electrification and hydrogen play a large role in all of the energy transition road maps,” M. Lopes says. “Hydrogen will be such an important market in the future and if ethanol can play a role, somehow, even if a small role, it could be really significant in comparison to the volume of ethanol that we produce today.”&nbsp;Hydrogen projections peg future demand anywhere from 50 to 200 million metric tons annually, he points out. “Our pitch is not that ethanol will lead this hydrogen market, but it will be part of the solution. It’s a piece in this energy transition puzzle.”&nbsp;While ammonia and methanol are often talked about as hydrogen carriers for transcontinental shipping, M. Lopes says there’s a case to be made for ethanol. “Ethanol is very easy to transport. It’s non-toxic. It’s liquid at room temperature. If you talk about ammonia, it’s highly toxic. If there is a leak in the ocean, you kill everything within kilometers. Methanol is also toxic. Ethanol seems to be an elegant solution and complementary.”&nbsp;Hytron’s Daniel Lopes agrees. “We need to open the eyes of stakeholders. Why not use a feedstock that is logistically ready to transport hydrogen right now—ethanol?” Hytron’s goal is to scale to a size that could be used in ports around the world to produce hydrogen and biogenic CO2 to replace fossil sources in multiple processes. When looking at sustainable aviation fuels, he points out, leading technology starts with Fischer-Tropsch syngas. “What is that? Syngas is hydrogen plus CO. The first gas we produce is hydrogen plus CO.”&nbsp;Raízen’s Mateus Lopes advocates Brazil and the U.S. work together to improve ethanol’s profile. “There’s this huge opportunity in the energy transition. And somehow ethanol seems to be left behind in many of the energy transition discussions.” He points to the September launch of the Global Biofuels Alliance on the sidelines of the G20 Summit in New Delhi as a positive sign. “More and more we don’t need to think about ethanol from sugarcane or corn, or from Brazil or the U.S. or India. We need to create this united voice where we echo the possibilities and work together to develop new solutions from lignocellulosic ethanol, hydrogen, diesel, aviation, chemicals. The potential of those applications is huge.”Author: Susanne Retka Schill&nbsp; Contact: writer@bbiinternational.com&nbsp;&nbsp;

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A high-profile, multi-participant project in Brazil is poised to demonstrate ethanol-to-hydrogen technology.    

Harvesting Hydrogen

Energy Integration Inc. is a small company doing big things in ethanol. Led by Bill Schafer, a professional engineer with decades of work in energy production, much of it in renewables, EII has a resume of qualifying experience that might impress even more seasoned industry veterans. Along with Schafer, there is Lynn Crawford, the idea-man who created the basis for EII’s mechanical vapor recompression offering—a platform capable of drastically reducing a plant’s energy consumption.Crawford’s first big ethanol-related dream started in the heart of South Dakota ethanol country, back in his younger days. He was actually awarded the second ethanol plant license in the state (the first went to South Dakota State University). That early mechanical vapor recompression idea he deployed near Aberdeen remained active, but also idle in practice, investment or use by others for decades, until Crawford was able to connect with Schafer. Now, the pair is responsible for an innovative company with major installments at two European ethanol plants. And, Schafer says, more projects are in the works.Crawford grew up on his family’s farm near Frederick, South Dakota, north of Aberdeen. It's good pheasant hunting country, colder than cold in the winters, and a perfect place, it turns out, to let your ethanol imagination run wild. Years ago, Crawford finished an undergraduate education at the South Dakota School of Mines and Technology before earning a postgraduate degree in thermodynamics at Montana State. The combination of Crawford's intellectual curiosity and agricultural background, Shafer says, helps explain his decades-long interest in ethanol production.“Lynn is a brilliant guy. Always has been,” Schafer says.After time in the Peace Corps, Crawford came home to South Dakota and became fascinated with ethanol.“He didn’t think they could get enough energy out for what they were putting in at that time, based on their designs [in that era],” Schafer says.The use of mechanical vapor recompression—think residential heat pumps but industrial in scale and more advanced—was the answer for Crawford. He built a pilot-scale ethanol plant on his farm, operated it, demonstrated it and got his first patent in 1982. Despite his ideas for ethanol, the interest and/or investment never caught on. Crawford moved to Denver and switched his focus to testing ethanol blends for the Denver Metro, including state patrol cars. Then, the focus of his career changed entirely to software development. But according to Schafer, his future business partner’s fascination with ethanol and mechanical vapor recompression never faded.In 2015, Crawford and Schafer began taking steps to bring the MVR idea back to life. They completed a preliminary design for a Colorado based ICM-designed ethanol plant. According to Schafer, the early results seemed almost too good to be true. “It looked like the potential was really good,” he says.Shortly after, the company was officially formed and began pitching ethanol companies on its mechanical vapor recompression idea. At the 2018 International Fuel Ethanol Workshop &amp; Expo in Minneapolis, Minnesota, EII was approached by Mark Turley, the head ClonBio. The company owns Pannonia Bio in Hungary, which operates Europe’s largest ethanol biorefinery, a complex with two plants. Highly interested in the energy reduction claims put out by EII, Turley's team reviewed the science and engineering behind the technology and ultimately licensed it.Flash forward five years and EII has successfully installed and started up MVR systems at both plants in Hungary. Internationally, the company is engaging on new projects. Schafer is busy. Crawford has hit his retirement years, but as Schafer says with a laugh, “Lynn feels vindicated.”The Benefits of MVR&nbsp; EII’s approach to mechanical vapor recompression reroutes the Btus that would normally go into the cooling towers. The energy retention that happens from that removal is significant. The process used is related to temperature changes that happen with a phase change of water to steam.“People typically think of heat as a temperature absolute, but you’ll never get that water hotter at a given pressure,” Schafer says. “Any additional heat added to the water is consumed in the water to steam phase change. The phase change takes nearly seven times the energy needed to get water up to boiling temperature. The same amount of energy is released when water condenses.”&nbsp;EII’s system puts heat that would have gone into the cooling towers into blowers or condensers that raise the heat of compression. The step avoids diverting that energy to the water in the cooling towers. Pressures and temperatures that are higher than those needed by plant processes permit the reintroduction of heat to the plant and avoids energy lost to cooling water in condensing vapors—a major loss of process power. That is significant because the energy needed to create a phase change—water to steam or vice versa—is a major cost producer. “We can reduce the load on a tower by 90 percent,” Schafer says.&nbsp;Heat pump systems used in residential applications typically have efficiency ratings based on the amount of electricity required versus the heat recovered. Most of those systems are rated for efficiency between 1.5 and 3. The EII systems have efficiency ratings between 6 and 8 in moving heat from one place to another. This is partially associated with the fact that Crawford and Schafer designed their system to work entirely on electricity.&nbsp;“We get back, on the average, seven times as much energy as we consume in electrical energy,” Schafer says.&nbsp;Most of the energy efficiency in the existing ethanol industry is related to making use of multiple effects that take higher temps and steam, condense those sources and send them through a series of heat exchangers to get out as much energy as possible.&nbsp;EII takes the lowest grade of heat and then uses heated compression to bring up the pressure and temp to reintroduce it into the process. When EII looks at a plant, it seeks ways to utilize its MVR tech on multiple processes. The systems are also designed to be reversible. Plants can operate as they do today, or they can use an MVR installation that can be turned on or off. The switch from an EII-linked system to a standard setup only takes 15 minutes. According to Schafer, operators can’t tell the difference in how plants operate on or off the MVR.&nbsp;The installation requirements, including no downtime at a plant, make adopting the EII platform operationally attractive. “There is no downtime,” Schafer says. The system can be installed without ever bringing the plant offline. The use of blind flanges can allow a system to be constructed and ready before a plant ever stops. For maintenance, the same applies. MVR system maintenance will not impact a plant’s run time.&nbsp;All of the equipment for the system is off the shelf. EII can license the system, and it has already been awarded 10 U.S. patents related to biorefineries. “We have never done an estimate or design that didn’t meet the financial requirements [of a client],” Schafer says.&nbsp;Most paybacks are less than three years and come with double-digit rates of return.Awarding-Winning Recompression&nbsp; In 2018, Schafer started a process with Pannonia Bio, the Hungary-based renewable energy producer that took the EII design from a concept to an award-winning technology, beating out larger competitors in a prestigious international chemical engineering competition.&nbsp;After meeting with Pannonia to discuss the EII concept, Schafer was all set to commence the task of making mechanical vapor recompression a reality. After traveling to Budapest, performing rigorous engineering reviews, creating process diagrams and repeating, he was ready to begin the EPC process.The job was to integrate the EII design into two co-located ethanol production facilities. The first was an ICM/Fagen plant with a nameplate capacity of roughly 53 MMgy. The second, the adjacent Maguin plant, was nearly double that capacity. The goal was to take heat lost to the cooling towers and return it to the process through the MVP process and heat pumps. The main portion of the work involved taking vapors off the rectifiers that would have gone to the condenser. Instead, they would upgrade the vapors, put them in a reboiler and condense them for reuse across the plant.EII went through a process flow diagram from the current plant operating data before undergoing an engineering review and approval. The company created a baseline for mass energy balance at the plant, performed preliminary designs, estimated capex/opex and the economic feasibility of installation and operation. It also assisted on due diligence before getting the project approved. In addition to third-party engineering reviews of its system (and also internal engineering reviews), the entire group visited a major petrochemical facility in South Korea to see mechanical vapor recompression systems in action.&nbsp;The equipment was ordered, and the first major blowers arrived in 2019. Then the pandemic changed everything. In addition to subcontractor lockdowns, one of the main engineering firms tasked with doing much of the work on site went insolvent. None of that was enough to stop Schafer. He was able to find alternative options and work with Pannonia directly to get the system set up.&nbsp;Although a magazine article might not adequately explain the unique story and set of circumstances the company had to deal with to make the two installations a reality, Schafer says he’s happy the story is getting told. After the ICM-designed plant rectifier feed was tied to the MVR and the Maguin rectifier feed was tied to its own MVR installation, both plants incurred major savings in energy, cooling and steam generation. At the ICM plant, there was a 47 percent reduction in total energy requirements. At Maguin, it was roughly 32 percent in total energy requirement reductions.&nbsp;The parent company of the plants in Hungary, CloneBio, has now acquired an ethanol plant in the U.S., and Schafer says the plan is to do the same install of the EII system there. The company has also partnered with Praj Industries to bring the technology to India and other parts of the world. When he talks about carbon intensity scores, he estimates a range of improvement from six to 13 points. All of the founders’ ideas, big or small, no matter where they started, seem to be working out, Schafer says of where EII was in 2015 versus today. The amount of renewable electricity on the grid is helping their case. The push for carbon reduction also helps. And the desire of the ethanol industry to add efficiency wherever possible is certainly huge, Schafer says. “We feel like we are in the right place,” he says, “at the right time.” Author: Luke Geiver&nbsp;&nbsp; Contact: writer@bbiinternational.com&nbsp;

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Energy Integration Inc. is helping ethanol producers rethink, reroute and reuse steam and heat in ways that impact cooling, steam generation and overall plant energy use. 

Stretching Out Steam

Helen Keller said it best: “Alone we can do so little, together we can do so much.”Over the past four decades, the U.S. ethanol industry has achieved numerous victories on the policy and regulatory front, as well as major wins in the commercial marketplace. But none of those successes would have been possible without the ethanol industry’s valuable partnerships and ability to work together with a diverse group of stakeholders.Take the Renewable Fuel Standard, for example. A landmark agreement between RFA and the American Petroleum Institute paved the way for passage of the original RFS in 2005. Two years later, we partnered with environmental groups, farmers, and energy security hawks to secure passage of the expanded RFS. Most recently, RFA has again partnered with API and fuel marketers to push for legislation that would permanently remove the summertime barrier to E15 sales.Throughout the history of the industry, RFA has forged alliances with agriculture, automakers, mechanics, petroleum companies, fuel retailers, government agencies, policymakers, environmental and health groups, academic researchers, consumer groups, military veterans and many others to help advance the industry and promote the benefits of renewable fuels.&nbsp;Our success has been powered by these partnerships.&nbsp;And looking forward, our partnerships must continue to adapt and evolve. To continue positioning ethanol as a solution to the world’s most vexing problems, we’ll need to continue expanding our coalitions and collaborations. Thus, as RFA pursues new opportunities for ethanol in a rapidly changing world, it only seems fitting that we would choose “Powered by Partnerships” as the theme for the 2024 National Ethanol Conference, taking place Feb. 19-21 in San Diego.&nbsp;A decade ago, it would have seemed unimaginable that the ethanol industry would be working closely with commercial airlines seeking sustainable aviation fuels, petrochemical manufacturers searching for low-carbon renewable feedstocks, professional fishing teams looking for a cleaner marine fuel, foreign governments pursuing low-cost clean energy for their citizens, or a myriad of innovative companies seeking to sequester or utilize the pure CO2 from ethanol fermentation. Today, we are working with all of these groups—and many others—to chart the future path for ethanol.It is a simple truth that when seemingly unrelated industries and entities face common challenges—like the need to decarbonize, the need to clean up the air in urban areas, or the need to enhance energy security—working together helps us all accomplish more. For almost three decades, the National Ethanol Conference has brought together industry leaders and stakeholders from around the world for the purpose of building trust, forging alliances, and building relationships. In 2024, you can expect more of the same, as a broad spectrum of attendees will gather to discuss how we can work together to address the opportunities and challenges ahead for ethanol.The NEC agenda will once again provide our participants with the experience they have come to expect—an opportunity to learn, to share best practices, to network and build their businesses, and to celebrate the industry’s many successes. We look forward to the National Ethanol Conference and the opportunity to power even more partnerships in the future. We’ll see you there!&nbsp;Author: Geoff Cooper&nbsp; President and CEO&nbsp; Renewable Fuels Association&nbsp; 202-289-3835gcooper@ethanolrfa.org

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The ethanol industry’s valuable partnerships and ability to work together with a diverse group of stakeholders has helped achieve numerous policy, regulatory and commercial victories over the past four decades.

Powered by Partnerships

For us, a great story lineup—an effective editorial blend, if you will—bundles pieces about industry transformation, plant improvement, new markets and, for good measure, entrepreneurial moxie. We have each in this twelfth edition of what’s been, on the whole, an exceptional year for ethanol. Producers are wrapping up 2023 in a good spot, financially poised to invest, improve and innovate. Perhaps something in these pages will catch their eye. &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; First, we take a high-level look—quite literally—at the energy optimization attained through mechanical vapor recompression (MVR) and the associated gains of rerouting and boosting process heat. The photo-filled piece includes the backstory on Energy Integration Inc., a company founded by two industry veterans—Bill Schafer and Lynn Crawford—who came together late in their careers to bring the benefits of MVR to biofuels production. Their technology reroutes thermal energy otherwise destined for a biorefinery’s cooling towers. After heated compression, this super-hot steam is reintroduced into the process where it’s best utilized. The result is an ethanol plant that’s substantively more energy efficient. Two facilities have installed MVR, both in Hungary, achieving reductions in their overall energy needs by 32 and 47 percent, respectively. American plants might be next.&nbsp; Our page-22 story, “Harvesting Hydrogen,” is also related to process efficiency and heat management, but in the context of hydrogen production. Jet-setting from Hungary to Brazil, we peer into São Paulo-based Raízen’s move to position sugarcane ethanol as a readymade feedstock for hydrogen. The company doing it, Hytron, is able to turn ethanol into steam reformer gas, which hydrogen is pulled from. Apparently, it takes 1.5 gallons of ethanol to make 2.5 pounds of hydrogen—and the world might need 50 to 200 million metric tons of hydrogen in the future. Sounds like another multi-billion-gallon market for ethanol. &nbsp; &nbsp; Efficiency in the context of grain management isn’t so much about energy, but time and money. Our page-30 story, “Smarter, Better and Bigger,” looks at a handful of corn receiving and storage upgrades ethanol plants have made to stay competitive in an industry increasingly motivated to take in huge amounts of feedstock with high velocity and intelligence. The business case for both enhanced receiving and storage hangs on efficiency, the former in the context of speed and accuracy, the latter flexibility and risk mitigation. &nbsp; Finally, you might take interest in the brief profile we’ve written on a Swiss entrepreneur making a bold entrance onto the cellulosic stage. “Taking Her Plan to Pilot,” on page 36, tells the story of Hangama Wanner’s industrious venture into an extremely challenging realm of biofuels production. The company is working on patents and seeking a partner for third-party validation of its cellulosic ethanol technology. Who knows? Maybe a U.S. ethanol plant will open its doors for pilot testing. They sometimes do. &nbsp;Author: Tom Bryan President &amp; Editor

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The latest issue of Ethanol Producer Magazine tackles industry transformation, plant improvements, new markets, and entrepreneurial moxie. 

An Optimal Blend of Stories

Honeywell, GranBio to produce SAF from cellulosic ethanolHoneywell and GranBio Technologies have partnered to combine Honeywell’s ethanol-to-jet (ETJ) technology with GranBio’s cellulosic ethanol technology (AVAP) to produce carbon-neutral sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) from biomass residues at a U.S. demonstration plant currently under development.GranBio’s patented AVAP process converts biomass, including forest and agricultural residues, to pure, low-cost, low-carbon sugars, lignin, and nanocellulose. The cellulosic sugars are converted to SAF and biochemicals.&nbsp;Using forest biomass-derived ethanol, SAF produced from Honeywell's ETJ process can reduce greenhouse gas emissions to net zero on a lifecycle basis. GranBio CEO Bernardo Gradin said that, in addition to forest and agricultural residue, there is enormous potential for the technologies to be retrofitted to idle pulp and paper mills in the U.S.—"revitalizing forestry value chains and rural manufacturing with great social, environmental and economic impact."&nbsp;Ingenza, Phibro Ethanol enhance thermotolerant yeast solutionIngenza and Phibro Ethanol have, together, engineered a novel yeast strain designed to increase ethanol production yield under both challenging and conventional conditions.&nbsp;Focused on solving the problem of high-temperature yeast stress—which reduces fermentation performance and ethanol yield—Ingenza and Phibro created KinetX yeast solutions—a highly thermotolerant yeast strain that secretes glucoamylase (GA) throughout growth and fermentation stages. The novel strain was obtained using Ingenza’s proprietary methods centered around adaptive laboratory evolution. According to Phibro, the enhanced product offers superior robustness and reliability at higher temperatures while greatly reducing GA addition in comparison to traditional yeasts, bringing significant financial benefits to ethanol plants. Additional next-generation yeast lines in the KinetX portfolio are expected to debut on the international market soon, alongside other programs incorporating novel technologies to deliver even higher ethanol yields.&nbsp;EPA approves efficient producer pathways for White Energy plantsThe U.S. EPA recently published notices approving efficient producer pathways for two Texas ethanol plants operated by White Energy Inc. The approvals allow the company to generate renewable identification numbers (RINs) under the Renewable Fuel Standard for non-grandfathered volumes of ethanol.&nbsp;The approvals apply to ethanol produced at White Energy’s facilities in Hereford, Texas, and Plainview, Texas. Each facility currently has a production capacity of 150 MMgy, according to Ethanol Producer Magazine’s online plant map. However, it was reported last year that the company produces a total of about 250 million gallons of ethanol per year using 90 million bushels of grain, one-fourth of which is sorghum. With most of White Energy’s feedstock—corn—traditionally being delivered by rail from northern states, the company has been actively sourcing as much sorghum as it can, locally and regionally.Raízen, Wärtsilä partner to test ethanol as marine fuelBrazilian ethanol producer Raízen has partnered with Wärtsilä, a global leader in power system technologies for marine and energy markets, to advance decarbonization of the marine sector. By studying the use of ethanol as a marine fuel, the initiative aims to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, provide novel options to customers seeking sustainable fuel alternatives, and substantively contribute to energy transition research and development in the global marine sector.Together, the companies will conduct technology tests with ethanol as a primary fuel in Wärtsilä Sustainable Fuels’ engine laboratories; the collaboration will support Raízen’s discussions with ship designers and shipowners, and produce data that may help fulfill regulations and compliance requirements for the use of cellulosic ethanol as fuel."Ethanol is a promising marine fuel that is readily available now," said Paulo Neves, vice president of Trading at Raízen.&nbsp;Verbio conducts second annual corn stover harvestVerbio has conducted its second corn stover harvest. The company uses stover as production feedstock for renewable natural gas (RNG) production at its biorefinery in Nevada, Iowa. The stover is sourced from growers within a 60-mile-radius of the plant.According to Greg Faith, president of Verbio Nevada, the company harvested approximately 135,000 bales of stover this fall, enough feedstock for a year. The plant has been in operation since late 2021, handling stover harvesting with its own team. After corn is harvested from a field, Verbio’s agronomy team chops, bales and hauls the stover that remains. The bales are trucked to the plant and stored on site.In addition to RNG production, Verbio is commissioning a 60 MMgy corn ethanol plant. “The integration of RNG and ethanol production [at the Nevada biorefinery] incorporates advanced operational technology to build on the company’s successful experiences in Europe,” Faith said.&nbsp;POET holds grand opening for Bioproducts CenterPOET, along with South Dakota State University and South Dakota Mines, celebrated the grand opening of the POET Bioproducts Center in mid-October.&nbsp;The 45,000-square-foot complex is located at SDSU’s Research Park in Brookings. The first-of-its-kind, innovative ecosystem between students, faculty and industry partners will allow collaboration on next-generation bioproducts. The facility and its operating body, Dakota BioWorx, represent a public-private partnership focused on research, economic development and workforce preparation in South Dakota.&nbsp;“At POET, we’re proud to have been at the forefront of ag and biotechnology innovation for 35 years,” said Jeff Broin, POET founder and CEO. “We are committed to investing in the next generation of leaders who will pave the way to the ag-based bioeconomy of the future. We have only begun to scratch the surface of what agriculture can do, and this venture will play a vital role in the ability of today’s bright young minds to continue our legacy of ingenuity.”Printed in the December 2023 issue of Ethanol Producer Magazine

December 2023

Business Briefs

Business Briefs for December 2023

Columns

Powered by Partnerships

An Optimal Blend of Stories

Featured

Taking Her Plan to Pilot

Smarter, Better and Bigger

Harvesting Hydrogen

Stretching Out Steam

December 2023.css-7jxktu{position:absolute;bottom:0px;left:0px;right:0px;height:3px;border-radius:3px;background-color:var(--chakra-colors-brandBlack);}

Business Briefs

Business Briefs for December 2023

Columns

Powered by Partnerships

An Optimal Blend of Stories

Featured

Taking Her Plan to Pilot

Smarter, Better and Bigger

Harvesting Hydrogen

Stretching Out Steam

December 2023