2021 December Ethanol Producer Magazine

DECEMBER 2021

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BIG Ethanol Grain Storage Evolves PAGE 26

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Steel Prices Not POET's Low Freezing Projects Carbon Rhythm PAGE 14

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Contents

14

PHOTO: BROWN TANK

22

PHOTO: POET

26

PHOTO: SUKUP

30

PHOTO: CLEARFLAME

DECEMBER 2021 VOLUME 27 ISSUE 12

DEPARTMENTS 6

EDITOR'S NOTE Putting Progress Ahead of Price

By Tom Bryan

4

AD INDEX/EVENTS CALENDAR

8

VIEW FROM THE HILL Zeroing In On New Opportunities

By Geoff Cooper

10 GLOBAL SCENE

Climate Solutions will Require California Creativity

By Leticia Phillips

12 BUSINESS BRIEFS 39 MARKETPLACE

FEATURES 14 BUILD

Starting with Steel

By Tom Bryan

Despite high costs, tank and vessel work continues

22 OUTLOOK

Solutions at the Surface

By Tom Bryan

CONTRIBUTIONS 34 PROCESS

Antibiotic Interactions In Ethanol Production: Sharing a Decade of Data

By Jenny Forbes and Cam Fowler

POET CEO Jeff Broin reflects on growth, discovery and change

26 FEEDSTOCK

Grain Storage On the Grow

By Tom Bryan

Seeking maximum control, producers opt for bigger bins

30 PROFILE Ethanol Producer Magazine: (USPS No. 023-974) December 2021, Vol. 27, Issue 12. Ethanol Producer Magazine is published monthly by BBI International.

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Ethanol's Next Open Road

By Tom Bryan

ClearFlame is a step closer to taking diesel out of diesel engines

ON THE COVER This massive grain bin was built for Golden Grain Energy in Mason City, Iowa, in early 2021.

Considered the world’s largest free-span grain bin, and dubbed "Binzilla," the behemoth can hold 2.2 million bushels of corn.

PHOTO: SUKUP MANUFACTURING CO.

ETHANOLPRODUCER.COM | 5

Editor's Note

Putting Progress Ahead of Price The image of raw steel production tends to evoke the industrial might of mid-century America—Pittsburgh steel mills, auto manufacturing, skyscrapers, bridges and ships—the Rust Belt’s iconic creations. But looking at steel production nostalgically is a distinctly American thing, as it is far from obsolete. Global steel production has tripled in the last half century, and we use far more of it today than ever before. In the U.S., we tend to think of steel manufacturing in the past tense not because it’s gone, but because we haven’t kept up. China dominates the industry, and steel manufacturing is largely out of sight, out of mind.

Despite the pandemic, global steel production has hardly waned since 2019, but U.S. output dropped by a fifth and hasn’t returned to full stride as demand has. As a result, carbon and stainless steel prices have ballooned. How is this relevant to ethanol? Well, if you’re not ordering new equipment, tanks, vessels, bins or buildings, perhaps it isn’t.

But for ethanol producers replacing aging infrastructure, upsizing storage or investing in new technology, steel matters.

To understand how the state of steel affects ethanol, we turn this month to the makers of our bins, tanks and process vessels. In “Starting with Steel,” on page 14, we learn that while production costs are higher, and delivery times longer, many ethanol producers are still moving forward with projects. For some, it’s a matter of no longer being able to defer what’s necessary. Others are compelled to move forward with low-hanging opportunities like high-grade alcohol—striking while the iron is hot, albeit expensive.

From the heavy-gauge steel that is burned, beveled and rolled to form the welded shells of ethanol storage tanks, fermenters and condensers, we turn to the corrugated steel containers that house our industry’s principal input. In “Grain Storage on the Grow,” on page 26, we look at how producers are pushing onsite corn storage to new heights (and widths). With a bumper crop on the way, we catch up with Sukup Manufacturing Co., which recently delivered the 2.2-million-bushel corn bin pictured on our cover. While bin makers certainly aren’t insulated from steel-related challenges, they say the payback on going big with storage remains attractive.

When you’re given an opportunity to interview the leader of the largest biofuel company on earth, you take it, and we’re eager to share what we learned from POET CEO Jeff Broin. In “Solutions at the Surface,” on page 22, we offer an in-depth look at POET, which acquired six Flint Hills Resources ethanol plants in 2021, lifting its overall production to nearly 3 billion gallons per year. POET has always blazed its own trail, and more than three decades after launching the company, Broin’s vision remains uniquely independent and bold. With the long-term goal of net-zero carbon, POET is as committed as ever to investing in new technologies, embracing change and still daring to discover.

Finally, we catch up with ClearFlame Engine Technologies, two years after the company introduced itself to our industry. Putting test trucks on the road, ClearFlame is edging closer to commercializing a technology that makes it possible to run ethanol in diesel engines. With diesel use totaling 60 billion gallons in the U.S. alone, the market implications are enormous, and the air quality and climate benefits profound.

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6 | ETHANOL PRODUCER MAGAZINE | DECEMBER 2021

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View from the Hill

Zeroing In On New Opportunities

Geoff Cooper

President and CEO Renewable Fuels Association 202.289.3835

gcooper@ethanolrfa.org

RFA is excited to announce that our National Ethanol Conference will be taking place in person in February 2022 in New Orleans. The theme we selected for this year’s event—“Zeroing In On New Opportunities”—is an especially pertinent one today, as our nation’s capital continues to debate climate policy and the need to reduce carbon emissions over the long term. Our theme, and the two key messages it conveys, reflects our vision for the future of the ethanol industry.

First, the theme’s “zeroing in” reference speaks directly to the industry-leading commitment RFA members unanimously made to ensuring ethanol achieves net-zero lifecycle greenhouse gas emissions by 2050 or sooner. As we pointed out in a letter to President Biden, ethanol’s carbon footprint continues to shrink rapidly, as new technology and innovation have improved the efficiency of the entire ethanol production process, from the field to the fuel tank. While we are proud of these advances, many opportunities exist to deliver even greater GHG reductions in the near and mid-term.

The theme’s second aspect, “new opportunities,” is a clear focus on the significance of new uses and markets for ethanol and its coproducts. Energy, chemical, and consumer products companies around the world are beginning to recognize that ethanol’s renewability and low-carbon attributes have value that extends far beyond the gas pump. One promising new market for our industry is the potential use of ethanol as a feedstock to produce sustainable aviation fuel, or SAF. Many in Washington have made decarbonization of the aviation sector a top priority.

In September, I was invited to speak at a White House roundtable on the future of sustainable aviation fuel, an event where the Biden administration announced a goal of 3 billion gallons of SAF by 2030. At the meeting, led by White House climate advisor Gina McCarthy and attended by several cabinet secretaries and members of Congress, I shared RFA’s view that SAF production presents a major new market opportunity for ethanol producers—but only if fair and scientifically sound lifecycle analysis methods are used to estimate the carbon impacts of different SAF sources.

Likewise, there are modest steps Congress and the Biden administration need to take to better facilitate our industry’s quest to achieve net-zero emissions and open the door to new markets.

Specifically, RFA encourages Congress and the administration to move forward with several key policy initiatives: development of a national Clean Fuel Standard to complement the Renewable Fuel Standard; support for broad deployment of carbon capture, utilization and storage; and increased production and deployment of more flex-fuel vehicles.

Voters would strongly support these efforts. Polling that RFA undertook with Morning Consult in September discovered that two-thirds of those surveyed not only support ethanol and the Renewable Fuel Standard, but also agree that ethanol should be part of the strategy to achieve zero emissions economywide by 2050, help diversify America’s fuel supply, and help ease price spikes that come from disasters. American consumers are on our side, and we need to keep reminding political leaders of this fact and of the broad support for ethanol as an important energy component moving forward.

Our future is bright, but the industry’s success depends in large part on the right policy and continued innovation by ethanol producers. To learn more about how the ethanol industry will zero in on these exciting new opportunities, I encourage you to join us at February’s National Ethanol Conference. I hope to see you there!

8 | ETHANOL PRODUCER MAGAZINE | DECEMBER 2021

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Global Scene

Climate Solutions will Require California Creativity

Leticia Phillips

North American Representative Brazilian Sugarcane Industry Association, UNICA 202.506.5299

leticia@unica.com.br

At this writing, two major happenings are occurring on the climate front. The first is the dwindling hope that groundbreaking climate policy will be part of President Biden’s Build Back Better plan. The Second is the gathering of world leaders at the UN Climate Conference in Scotland.

For me, there are two takeaways.

The first is the realization that climate activists must temper their legislative expectations. A single senator appears to have jettisoned the president’s idea for $150 billion to pay power plants to reduce their dependency on fossil fuels.

Even if Democrats agree to a watered-down agenda, climate advocates must acknowledge that Congress may be unable or unwilling to pass historic climate legislation without a sea change in public opinion.

Congress reflects a divided America. Most voters claim to support policies that will reduce greenhouse gases, but when it comes to picking up the tab, many balk. A survey from 2019 finds that nearly 70 percent of Americans would not be willing to pay even ten bucks more a month in higher electric bills even if the money was going to fight climate change.

This leads us to the second event, the gathering of global climate policymakers in Scotland for the 26th UN Climate Change Conference (COP26).

Ostensibly the Summit’s goal is to “accelerate action” toward the Paris Agreement, but the real long-term challenge is to change the hearts and minds of average citizens in the developed world. Abraham Lincoln famously said that “Public sentiment is everything. With public sentiment, nothing can fail. Without it, nothing can succeed.”

Absent a broad consensus or willingness, policymakers must act with the tools available now. They need to be creative in terms of executive and regulatory action, public-private partnerships and fresh ideas that can inspire people.

For climate creativity, California can once again show us the way.

Ten years ago, California policymakers implemented its Low Carbon Fuel Standard (LCFS) to reduce greenhouse gases. The LCFS was part of a broader initiative that sought to improve vehicle technology, improve mileage and introduce transportation options to a growing populace. Specifically, the LCFS would lower the carbon intensity of transportation fuels by elevating the role of renewable, low carbon alternatives to traditional fossil fuels.

Ethanol derived from Brazilian sugarcane is a key pillar of the program. By relying on ethanol, biodiesel and electricity, the state is making significant progress toward its goal of a 20 percent reduction in the state’s transportation fuel carbon intensity by 2030. This mix is working and, according to the GHG Management Institute, California’s LCFS program has “successfully achieved a 5% decrease in the carbon intensity of transportation fuel (between 2011 and 2018).” The Brazilian sugarcane industry is committed to continuous improvement and understands sugarcane will not only continue to help California meet its ambitious goals but also play a role in the sustainable aviation fuel opportunities to come.

Over its ten years, LCFS has not remained static. It was amended to reflect California’s increasingly bold climate vision. Seeing the success of the program, a multi-jurisdictional coalition between California, Oregon, Washington and British Columbia is coalescing around polices to emulate the Golden State’s progress.

LCFS’s success has also sparked innovation in Brazil with the development of the country’s first marketbased carbon credit program, RenovaBio. This program offers incentives to fuel distributors to buy emission reduction certificates known as CBios. By tapping market forces, Brazil’s domestic ethanol sector will continue to grow while reducing the need for traditional petroleum-based products.

Successful programs like the LCFS and RenovaBio should remind us that all the climate answers don’t emanate from Capitol Hill, but I remain optimistic that over the long haul, federal policymakers will see the value in following California’s lead.

10 | ETHANOL PRODUCER MAGAZINE | DECEMBER 2021

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Registratio n includ ed with Spo nso rships

June 13, 2022 in MINNEAPOLIS at the International Fuel Ethanol Workshop & Expo www.FuelEthanolWorkshop.com

Capturing and storing carbon dioxide in underground wells has the potential to become the most consequential technological deployment in the history of the broader biofuels industry. Deploying effective carbon capture and storage at biofuels plants will cement ethanol and biodiesel as the lowest carbon liquid fuels commercially available in the marketplace. The Carbon Capture & Storage Summit will offer attendees a comprehensive look at the economics of carbon capture and storage, the infrastructure required to make it possible and the etplace impacts to participating producers.

Produced By

BUSINESS BRIEFS PEOPLE, PARTNERSHIPS & PROJECTS

ADM to sell Peoria high-grade alcohol dry mill to BioUrja Group In late October, Archer Daniels Midland Co. reached an agreement to sell its ethanol production complex in Peoria, Illinois, to BioUrja Group, calling the sale of the plant important to a strategic review of its dry mill ethanol assets.

“By reducing our ethanol capacity by 135 million gallons and redeploying the resulting capital to other strategic growth investments, we’re continuing the dynamic transformation of ADM’s business portfolio that we began a decade ago,” said ADM

CEO Juan Luciano. “We continue to execute on our strategic priorities, and we are excited about the opportunities ahead of us as we drive sustainable growth.”

Calling the plant acquisition a “double bottom line deal,” BioUrja’s Chairman and CEO Amit Bhandari said the company is excited about the plant’s capability to produce beverage-grade and high-purity industrial alcohol, along with fuel ethanol. The deal is expected to close by the end of the year.

Novozymes launches new yeast innovation for ethanol production Novozymes has introduced Innova Quantum, a new addition to its Innova yeast platform. According to the company, the new yeast enables ethanol plants with fermentation times of more than 60 hours to realize higher ethanol yields and processing efficiencies without making trade-offs that put their operation at risk.

Novozymes reports that Innova Quantum has significant robustness and works particularly well under differing processing conditions. This means that ethanol producers can maintain consistency in challenging conditions, maximize

the fermentation process towards optimal starch conversion, and achieve the highest ethanol yields in the industry. The company says ethanol producers can increase ethanol yield by 2 to 3 percent with the new yeast, which for a 100 MMgy plant translates to an additional $1 million to $2 million in revenue annually.

Novozymes says its Innova platform, just three years on the market, is being used in the production of nearly half of all North American ethanol.

Alto Ingredients upgrading plant to produce enhanced protein feed Alto Ingredients Inc. will install Harvesting Technology LLC’s patented CoPromax protein system at its Magic Valley, Idaho, facility.

“We are upgrading our Idaho facility with the installation of the CoPromax protein system as an integral part of our strategy to expand and diversify our essential ingredient product offerings,” said CEO Mike Kandris. “This system will produce new, concentrated protein feed and food ingredients.” With the upgrades in place, Alto's Magic Valley plant will produce over

33,000 tons annually of feed with a protein content greater than 50 percent. It will also increase distillers corn oil yields by 50 percent, to almost 9 million pounds annually.

Harvesting Technology CEO Jonathan Scarfpin, said the protein and oil recovery system is “the first step in a series of new technologies” the company is developing for ethanol producers. The project is expected to be complete in the first half of 2022.

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South Dakota Corn names Murray executive director DaNita Murray has been chosen to lead South Dakota Corn, the organization that houses the South Dakota Corn Growers Association and the South Dakota Corn UtilizaMurray tion Council.

Murray brings nearly two decades of experience in agriculture law and national level policymaking into her new role with SD Corn. “I am excited to come home to the state where I grew up and work on

behalf of South Dakota’s corn producers to help ensure their needs are met from a policy standpoint in both Pierre and Washington, D.C.,” she said.

Murray, who graduated with honors from Drake University School of Law, has served as both counsel and policy advisor in the Senate Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry Committee and House Agriculture Committee. She also served as director of public policy for the National Corn Growers Association. She begins her role with SD Corn December 1.

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| 13

Build

STARTING WITH

STEEL Most ethanol plant upgrades require the installation of new tanks or vessels. The carbon and stainless steel they’re made from is super expensive right now, but fabricators are still getting orders.

By Tom Bryan

While record-high steel prices and a strained supply chain are causing unprecedented challenges throughout manufacturing, few U.S. ethanol producers are deferring projects because of it. In fact,

despite higher costs and longer lead times for products made from flat, sheet and coiled steel, project activity is expected to rise in 2022 with ethanol output at its pre-pandemic level.

Ethanol plants are, of course, almost entirely made of steel—from their process machinery and piping to their metal buildings and structural supports—but the heavy-gauge steel that is “burned, beveled and rolled” to make tanks, vessels and columns is perhaps their most outward-facing characteristic. Ethanol Producer Magazine visited with two Midwest fabricators in late 2021, one that builds large tanks in pieces and assembles them on site, and another that delivers custom-manufactured shell and tube condensers. While the two companies make quite different products, both are dependent on steel and expect robust activity in 2022 despite the lingering high-cost environment.

Ethanol’s ‘Echo-Boom’ With a focus on field-erected tanks, Brown Tank LLC has been fabricating carbon and stainless steel storage and process tanks for U.S. ethanol producers for more than two de-

cades. From massive 2-million-gallon ethanol storage tanks to large process tanks—fermenters, beer wells, liquefaction tanks and more— the St. Paul, Minnesota-based company is a full-service tank builder that not only understands the ethanol industry but supports it.

“We’ve always been, and remain ready to serve ethanol plants,” says Scott Kraker, professional engineer and longtime sales manager at Brown Tank. “We’ve been working with producers since the early days, and through every stage of growth and evolution.”

With its experienced team of engineers, technicians and in-the-field fabrication personnel, Brown Tank is a one-stop shop that translates the design of a collaborating process engineer or EPC to construction-ready tank components. “Our professional engineering team produces the structural design plans for use in fabrication of the raw materials for the field construction of the tank on site,” Kraker says.

In a different realm of the steel vessel business, Decatur, Illinois-based Mason Manufacturing custom builds shell and tube evaporators for ethanol producers. Unlike the large tanks that Brown fabricates, however, Mason’s process vessels are entirely built in its shop and shipped out ready for installation. “That’s a large portion of our business, maybe twothirds of our volume,” says Doug Cox, vice president and engineering manager at Mason.

“We also build pressure vessels—reactors and

14 | ETHANOL PRODUCER MAGAZINE | DECEMBER 2021

columns—and, to a lesser extent, tanks. But our bread-and-butter is shell and tube heat exchangers.”

For years, Mason has been providing the ethanol industry with 190-proof condensers, sieve vaporizers, cook water heaters and CIP heaters made with both carbon and stainless steel (304 and 316). “We were able to get in on the ground floor with the ethanol industry’s top EPCs early, so we’re in a lot of ethanol plants throughout the Corn Belt,” Cox says.

“Having that decades-long presence has been good for us because people see our units in the plant. They’ve been in operation now for 10, 15, 20 years—with Mason Manufacturing nameplates on them—so if they need replace-

PROJECT LIFT: Brown Tank, which constructs both storage and process tanks for ethanol plants, supports its clients throughout the planning and design stages of project development and engineering by providing pricing and technical guidance on tank-related concepts prior to construction.

PHOTO: BROWN TANK

ment, parts or advice on upsizing, they know where to turn.”

Brown, too, serves many of the same ethanol clients it built tanks for in the early years. Working on ethanol projects, Kraker says, is a collaborative effort that pivots around project efficiency. “Ultimately, tank fabrication is about response time, cost and quality of service,” he says. “With our experience and in-house engineering and fabrication, we really have control of our business cycle. That enables us to come through for our customers in a manner they expect.”

Kraker says Brown Tank supports its clients throughout the planning and design stages of project development by providing

pricing and technical guidance on tank-related concepts. “By doing this, our clients our able to understand their potential budget options for expansions and repairs,” he says. “The fact that we are heavily weighted with engineering knowledge gives us the ability on help our customers select economical designs that make best use of available materials to keep projects on budget.”

Stainless steel tanks don’t easily corrode and seldom require repair. Carbon steel, on the other hand, tends to corrode predictably, requiring new tank bottoms over time. “It’s just the reality of flat-bottom tanks, especially those made from carbon steel, that the underside of the floor in contact with the founda-

tion tends to suffer corrosion due to moisture and other issues,” Kraker says. “There’s little you can do to prevent that, so there is often repair work at the 10- or 20-year interval to extend the longevity of the tank.”

Some of the new and repeat ethanol customers Mason serves also have issues with aging carbon steel-based components in their plant. “In the past, some of these shell and tube components were made with the most readily available and cost-effective material— carbon steel,” Cox says. “The major components like tubes and tube sheets were usually stainless, but some of the other components were carbon—especially in plants that raced to get completed back in the early-to-mid-2000s.”

ETHANOLPRODUCER.COM | 15

Build But Cox says ethanol producers don’t just call Mason to replace aging carbon steel evaporator components, but to optimize, debottleneck or boost flow rates. “While the construction boom peaked over a decade ago, we’ve seen an ‘echoboom’ of work in ethanol,” he says, explaining that pushing an older 190-proof condenser to a higher-than-design flow rate can create problematic vibration, for example. “Replacing those aging condensers can be a key part of enabling a 100-million-gallon plant to operate at 120 or 130 million gallons per year.”

How It’s Made All Brown Tank components are made at its 60,000-square-foot fabrication facility in St. Paul, where its shop personnel machine every piece with as much precision as possible. “We do everything we can to fabricate all the parts and pieces accurately to make it easier to assemble on site,” Kraker says. “On-site modifications to materials impact field productivity and schedules, so everything has to be ready to go.”

Ethanol storage tanks must comply with API standards—primarily API 650—while the vessels and columns made by Mason fall under ASME standards. The size and parameter of each tank design determines the gauge of steel used for the walls, floor and roof. Kraker says one-quarter to one-half inch steel is typical for storage tanks. The steel arrives in St. Paul in large flat sheets. “They typically arrive in eight-foot wide by 20- or 30-foot-long pieces,” he says.

Fabrication at the shop requires workers to cut to size, square up and prep the steel sheets with any machining necessary to support field welding. For curved wall pieces, shop technicians “burn, bevel and roll” the steel to the specifications of the tank’s circumference.

The steel used for the bottom and top of a tank, when complete, has a quilt-like appearance to form the round shape of the structure’s floor and roof. Structural steel supports are used inside tanks to hold up the roof and provide overall support. Aluminum floating roofs built by third-party contractors are assembled on site and installed inside the ethanol storage tanks before they are sealed shut.

Most storage tanks, and virtually all large process tanks, have concrete foundations; fermenter tanks sit on taller concrete pedestals to elevate the discharge piping to above-grade; storage tanks and other process tanks usually sit on a concrete slab or ring wall.

In Decatur, Mason’s fabrication process also begins with raw steel. “Everything we buy is 16 | ETHANOL PRODUCER MAGAZINE | DECEMBER 2021

CUSTOM MADE: Mason Manufacturing provides the ethanol industry with 190-proof condensers, sieve vaporizers, cook water and CIP heaters. Despite high steel prices, the company is busy fulfilling projects the ethanol industry can no longer afford to defer.

PHOTO: MASON MFG.

custom to the job,” Cox says, explaining how a custom shell and tube evaporator is built.

With engineering details in hand, Mason creates a bill of materials for each project and identifies “long-lead” items while drawings are still being finalized. “Typically, that’s going to be your tubes and tube sheets, as well as form heads and machined items,” Cox says, explaining that long-lead items generally do not change in geometry or size in final design.

“The tube quantity, length and thickness typically are not going to change.”

Pipes are cut to length and nozzle projections are made. Steel plates are cut to size,

burned and beveled. “Then we roll the steel and weld it,” Cox explains. “After welding we typically re-roll everything for out-of-roundness tolerance, per ASME code.”

Numerous components are precisionmachined prior to fitting. When everything is ready, the components are moved to a “fitter station” where experienced personnel assemble the pieces of the shell and tube heat exchanger as welders work behind them to fuse everything together. When the shell is completed, but before the “bundle” is inserted, a third-party inspector is brought in to do an internal and external inspection of the welds,

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another ASME requirement. “We build the [tube] bundle externally and then push it into the unit before weld sealing those tubes into the sheets.” Final inspection and hydro-testing is completed prior to shipment.

High-End Alcohol Work Today, all new ethanol process tanks are stainless steel, while fuel ethanol storage tanks are still built from more affordable carbon steel. However, high-grade alcohol—including United States Pharmacopeia (USP) grade alcohol and grain neutral spirits (GNS)— must be stored in stainless steel tanks, which

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are also equipped with floating roof systems.

“We’ve been busy building USP-grade stainless steel storage tanks for ethanol producers since the pandemic started, and just recently finished projects in Michigan and Kansas,” Kraker says.

Kraker says the demand for stainless storage tanks has been relatively steady with the uptick in high-grade alcohol production during the pandemic that, for many producers, has morphed into a longer-term play.

Mason, too, has seen an increasing number of jobs in the ethanol industry related to producers pursuing high-grade alcohol. “We

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Build are definitely seeing that activity, producers turning to a different filtration process and trying to get to a higher-grade alcohol for sanitizer or other high-end products,” Cox says.

“We have been involved on the engineering and fabrication side of this with … the thermal design for fitting geometries to complete the necessary heat loads, as well as the filtration technologies.”

Steel Price, Supply Current carbon steel prices—double or triple what they were pre-pandemic ($1,800$2,000 per ton verses $500-$700)—and protracted supply constraints have added budget and logistics complexities to the tank fabrication process. But Kraker says Brown Tank is doing what it can to keep its customers on budget and on schedule.

“We are all aware that there are extreme challenges throughout the supply chain, and this includes steel suppliers,” he says. “Pricing and availability continue to challenge customer budgets and construction schedules. Our team [provides customers with] timely information to make prompt decisions to mitigate these is-

CARBON COSTS: The prices of the carbon steel used for fuel ethanol storage tanks has almost tripled over the past 18 months, matching the cost of stainless steel pre-pandemic.

PHOTO: BROWN TANK

sues. Acting quickly in this market is the key to securing the resources necessary for successful projects.”

18 | ETHANOL PRODUCER MAGAZINE | DECEMBER 2021

Kraker says high material pricing has impacted follow through on some projects, but ethanol producer margins, and the payback on new process technology and extra stor-

age capacity often overrides concerns about the current cost of steel. “We’re seeing that most producers are able to implement their plans, even in a high-cost market,” Kraker says.

“Ethanol producers face challenges—we’re part of Growth Energy and we hear about the political challenges they’re up against—but they’re still finding ways to proceed with these projects. The market is hopeful, and producers are expressing a desire to proceed with plant improvements.”

Cox agrees, saying that higher prices for both carbon and stainless steel aren’t deterring ethanol producers from moving forward with necessary projects. “It doesn’t seem to be relaxing customer need,” he says. “No one seems to be backing off their plans because of cost.

There is very high pent-up demand, customers have been needing to order things for the last year and a half, and I think they feel like they simple can’t put these projects off.”

The high price of stainless steel doesn’t shock Cox as much as the current price of carbon steel. “Stainless is typically more price volatile because of the elements in it, so we’re used to seeing price fluctuations with stain-

less,” Cox says. “But carbon steel is simple, so the fact that prices doubled or tripled in the past year is extraordinary. Carbon steel right now is priced comparable to stainless steel prepandemic.”

Kraker says high steel prices may persist for months or even years. “Last week, there was another notice of a stainless steel price increase, and I expect the same with carbon steel,” he says. “This pricing bubble is going to continue as long as they have disruptions on their end with labor issues and plant supply logistics.”

Kraker continues, “Communication with our clients on projects is key to ensuring that they secure materials early enough in the process to mitigate any delay issues that prevail into next year’s construction season. Everything we’re seeing—all the forecasts—are predicting that this is going to continue for some time.”

Supply issues have also affected project timelines for Mason. Cox says the lead time of steel components such as tubing has been lengthened over the past six to nine months as demand has increased while supply tightened.

“There was a large sheet metal strike here in the U.S., with multiple plants down for a few months,” he says. “That strike, along with very high demand—with a lot of projects being released in 2021—has everyone playing catch up.

It has created tubing lead times that are 18 to 22 weeks.”

Cox says Mason has scrambled to find additional vendors, looking at both domestic and non-domestic tube suppliers, which are in turn dependent on their steel coil suppliers. The whole steel sector is simply lagging,” he says. “I think demand came back a lot quicker than people expected and the whole supply chain just hasn’t been able to catch up.”

Despite these price and lead-time challenges, Cox says, steel vessel fabrication work is steady. “Costs are obviously up but, again, I think people just can’t defer some of these projects any longer. The project orders keep coming in, and a lot of ethanol customers are already looking at spring.”

Author: Tom Bryan Contact: editor@bbiinternational.com

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THE LONGVIEW: POET Founder and CEO Jeff Broin says his company will continue to diversify and innovate as it strives for major carbon reductions in the years ahead.

POET is the largest biofuel producer in the world.

PHOTO: POET

22 | ETHANOL PRODUCER MAGAZINE | DECEMBER 2021

Outlook

SOLUTIONS AT THE SURFACE

POET Founder and CEO Jeff Broin reflects on the growth of his company, its pledge to explore new technologies, discover new products and lead the industry toward ultra-low carbon bioethanol.

By Tom Bryan

When POET acquired six Flint Hills Resources bioethanol plants in June, it added 730 million gallons of annual capacity to its portfolio, lifting the company to 3 billion gallons, expanding its fleet of bioprocessing plants to 33 and reinforcing its status as the world’s largest biofuel producer—of any kind. Those numbers are not lost on Founder

and CEO Jeff Broin, but he frames the deal not in the context of new volume, but new people.

“We didn’t just acquire some great plants, but 370 new team members,” he says, explaining that POET, based in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, now has more than 2,200 personnel across eight states. “We are absolutely excited about what has been accomplished with the acquisition, and the expansion of our team is a big part of the story.”

The opportunity to acquire the FHR plants came at POET quickly, and Broin credits the company’s experienced management team for rapidly executing on the purchase and integrating the facilities into POET’s fleet over the summer. In addition to the six plants, the acquisition included two terminals and FHR’s high-protein feed business, NexPro, which POET is maintaining while assessing its position as a hi-pro feed supplier. The acquired facilities range from 100 MMgy to 130 MMgy, with five in Iowa and one in Nebraska. The six biorefineries produce 1.5 million tons of distillers grains and 170 million pounds of distillers corn oil (DCO) annually. Unlike POET’s other biorefineries, the acquired FHR plants do

TEAM BUILDING: When POET acquired six Flint Hills Resources bioethanol plants in mid-2021, it expanded its production volume by 730 million gallons and gained 370 skilled personnel, including the team members shown here at the company’s Fairmont, Nebraska, facility.

PHOTO: POET

not currently possess the company’s patented raw starch hydrolysis platform, BPX. “The former FHR plants are conventional,” Broin tells EPM. “It will take time to determine what changes might be made in the future.”

The impact of the deal, possibly the largest in ethanol industry history, is hard to overstate. In addition to its ability to produce nearly 3 billion gallons of ethanol annually utilizing 930 million bushels of corn—roughly 6% of the U.S. crop—POET now produces 14 billion pounds of distillers coproduct (in multiple forms), 975 million pounds of DCO, and 6 million tons of commercial CO2. Plus, two of the company’s plants produce purified alcohol, both grain neutral spirits (GNS) and USPgrade alcohol.

Perhaps the figure that matters most to Broin, however, is 40,000. That’s the number U.S. farmers that supply corn to POET’s bioprocessing plants. “For us, this has always been about agriculture and capturing more energy from the surface of the earth,” he says. “Our growers aren’t just delivering corn, but leading the way with regenerative, climate-friendly agricultural practices.”

Net-Zero Quest Low-carbon agriculture, and pending market-based credits associated with it, will likely play a key role in POET’s ability to meet its ambitious carbon intensity reductions. In September, the company released its inaugural environmental, social and governance (ESG) ETHANOLPRODUCER.COM | 23

PURE PRODUCTS: POET currently produces 6 million tons of CO2 for commercial use and is one of the fastest-growing renewable CO2 distributors in the U.S., with over a dozen manufacturing facilities across the Midwest.

PHOTO: POET

HIGHER LEVEL: With high-purity alcohol production now online at its bioprocessing facilities in Leipsic, Ohio (shown here), and Alexandria, Indiana, POET is producing both USP-grade alcohol and grain neutral spirits (GNS).

PHOTO: POET

report, titled The Sun, the Soil & the Seed, detailing POET’s 34-year journey as a pioneer in the renewable energy sector, along with its progress in developing biofuels and a growing suite of plant-based bioproducts while maintaining a tradition of environmental stewardship, technological innovation, and a renowned workplace culture. The report included POET’s target of achieving net-zero carbon emissions from its fleet of bioprocessing facilities by 2050 and a GHG emissions reduction of 70 percent compared to gasoline by 2030 (as compared to an industry-wide average of 46 percent less GHG emissions than gas today).

“Low-carbon farming can and will play a key role in this,” Broin says. “With the right incentives in place, we believe farmers will embrace opportunities to accelerate our industry’s drive toward net-zero with bioethanol made from low-carbon grain.”

The ethanol industry’s quest for ultralow carbon biofuel has been widely defined as a three-pronged approach: continued efficiency gains through technology adoption

and process innovation (a key pillar for POET); low-carbon farming (with the right carbon accounting and incentives in place); and, for many producers, carbon capture and sequestration (CCS). As of September, more than 50 U.S. ethanol plants had engaged in the early stages of CCS, many signing on to participate in CO2 aggregation via future pipelines, others independently exploring CCS through onsite test wells, regulatory approvals or feasibility analysis.

POET, however, with the largest commercial CO2 capture operation in the industry, seems to be forging its own path forward while maintaining keen interest in CCS. The company has a fully integrated renewable CO2 and dry ice branch, POET Pure, that supplies CO2 to customers in beverage carbonation, food processing and other industries nationwide. So, while other producers line up for CO2 sequestration, POET’s Carbon Strategy Team is studying carbon reduction from every possible angle while maintaining its role as an essential commercial CO2 provider.

“Carbon capture is exciting, but we think there are several technologies that can help the industry lower its carbon footprint,” Broin says.

“We are evaluating several of those technologies and expect to make decisions soon in terms of what we might pursue. There are several ways to achieve reductions, and it will be critical to have state and federal policy support to help the industry reach these goals.”

It is vital, Broin says, for the ethanol industry, along with agriculture, to unite around opportunities for facility-level carbon reduction

24 | ETHANOL PRODUCER MAGAZINE | DECEMBER 2021

technologies such as combined heat and power (CHP). “If there are incentives to compress CO2 and inject it into the ground, there should be incentives for equivalent carbon avoidance at the plant level,” he says. “Carbon capture and storage is a great opportunity but using biomass for process heat is another proven way to lower carbon intensity, and it merits similar credit.”

Broin continues, “If you take a bioethanol plant and incorporate CHP from biomass— eliminating natural gas—that should get the same carbon intensity credit as injecting CO2 into the ground because you’re eliminating carbon in both scenarios. I’m a supporter of carbon sequestration. I think it’s fantastic, but the government needs to give us the opportunity to use biomass, biowaste, ag waste and process streams to displace fossil fuel use. At the end of the day, they’re just different strategies with the same objective: eliminating carbon emissions from fossil fuels.”

Embracing Change Through continuous innovation, POET has reduced its annual energy use, on a per plant basis, by 18% since 2005, and lowered its water use by 20% since 2007, while increasing ethanol yield by 8%. The company’s Chancellor, South Dakota, bioprocessing plant uses steam generated from biomass combustion and methane gas pipelined from a landfill near Sioux Falls.

Nearly half of all POET plants now utilize energy-efficient, steam-powered turbines that generate electrical energy from process steam.

In October, the company completed the instal-

Outlook

ENERGY ONSITE: In October, POET completed the installation of a 400 kW solar farm at its headquarters in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, which will power the company’s office building and send excess power to the local grid.

PHOTO: POET

lation of a 400-kW solar farm at its headquarters in Sioux Falls—the largest solar installation in the city—which will generate enough energy to power the POET office building and send any excess power to the local grid. POET is even evaluating the potential of solar energy at its bioprocessing plants.

The solar installation is just one more example of Broin’s embrace of renewables, rooted in his long-held belief that fossil fuels can be replaced by biobased energy—which is ultimately a derivative of solar energy—produced at the surface of the planet. “We are big believers that we need to return to the surface of the earth,” he says. “There are a multitude

of products that can be derived from the sun, soil and seed,” he adds, pointing back to the company’s ESG report and its aspirations for carbon neutrality.

Paradoxically, climate change indifference does persist in both agriculture and biofuels, but Broin doesn’t struggle with it. “I think there is clear evidence that the planet is warming, and agriculture is seeing the effects of it,” he says. “You look at the changes in weather patterns, temperatures, the frequency of extreme storms, and I think we all see some change.”

But regardless of opinions on climate change, Broin says, embracing a clean energy future is an easy choice. “Why not do everything you can to leave the world as good or better than you found it?” he asks. “Again, I think that starts with a return to the surface of the earth and a move away from fossil-based energy. Why not do what we can?”

Author: Tom Bryan Contact: editor@bbiinternational.com

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GRAIN STORAGE ON THE GROW With a third of U.S. ethanol plants producing 100 MMgy or more, and most wanting at least 30 days of bin capacity, onsite grain storage has evolved.

By Tom Bryan

With this year’s corn crop expected to top 15 billion bushels—the second largest harvest in history—and Iowa alone surpassing 2.5 billion bushels, another wave of grain storage expansion may be on the horizon in the Corn Belt, despite high steel prices and longer project wait times.

Such bumper crops amplify the need for more grain storage and, when prices are good, create an economic windfall that trickles over to on-farm and industrial improvements like grain storage. Farmers benefit from added grain storage by being able to hold onto their grain until prices are optimal. Likewise, ethanol plants upsize their storage for enhanced flexibility and control.

“For ethanol producers, more storage is often an easy financial decision,” says Brent Hansen, commercial accounts manager at Iowa-based Sukup Manufacturing Co. “Grain bins are among the quickestpayback investments producers can make.

If they can capture grain fresh out of the field near the end of the year, that’s about the best price they may see. Any volume you can get right away is going to typically help your margins.”

Hansen explains that producers also benefit from enhanced grain storage in the spring when growers are planting and unable to deliver their stored grain to the plant. “It’s not only about being able to accept that new grain in the fall,” he says, “but also having capacity to keep enough on hand to maintain control in the spring.”

When the majority of U.S. ethanol plants were built 10 to 15 years ago, most were 50 to 80 MMgy and sized their grain storage for 10 to 12 days of production.

Anything above half a million bushels of storage was adequate. “Whether it was for cost reduction or other reasons, most ethanol plants were built with a minimum amount of grain storage on site,” Hansen says. “They just didn’t see the advantage of going real big. It’s a different story now.”

Today, ethanol plant grain storage varies widely, but most producers have, or want, at least 20 days of capacity. “A lot of them would like to be at 30 or even 60 days

26 | ETHANOL PRODUCER MAGAZINE | DECEMBER 2021

depending on location,” Hansen says. “The advantage they get with larger bins, whether it’s a 1-, 1.5-, 2- or 2.5-million-bushell bin, is getting substantially more storage on a smaller footprint than was previously possible.”

Space isn’t an issue for all producers, of course, but Hansen says even those with multi-acre sites can benefit from the scale and efficiency of an extra-large grain bin.

“The ethanol industry is going bigger these days because they’re just turning so much grain,” Hansen says. “With the smaller etha-

SIZING UP: Two years ago, at Ringneck Energy in Onida, South Dakota, Sukup Manufacturing Co. completed what was then the largest single-site deployment of its equipment anywhere in the world. The Ringneck project included two 105-foot diameter grain storage bins and a 21-foot diameter hopper bin; several bucket elevators and conveyors; several catwalks and support towers—including one that is 60-feet tall—two zero-entry bin sweeps; and two large steel buildings.

PHOTO: SUKUP MANUFACTURING CO.

nol plants of the past, and the truck elevators, anything over 1 million bushels was considered pretty substantial because they didn’t always have the capability to monitor large amounts of incoming grain; it was risky.”

Now, with a third of U.S. ethanol plants over 100 MMgy, all having sophisticated procurement strategies, high-speed receiving and monitoring capabilities, grain storage strategies have changed. Sukup, which has delivered grain storage and receiving infrastructure to as many as 50 U.S. etha-

nol plants, made headlines earlier this year for building the world’s largest free-span grain bin. The container, built for Golden Grain Energy (GGE) in Mason City, Iowa, has a remarkable 165-foot diameter and a peak height of 144 feet. The massive bin, dubbed “Binzilla,” holds 2.2 million bushels of corn, and according to GGE CEO Chad Kuhlers, the system has increased the 127 MMgy plant’s grain storage from about 1.275 million bushels to almost 3.5 million bushels. Kuhlers said GGE went from about 10 days of storage to 30.

GGE grinds about 130,000 bushels of corn per day, or 42 million bushels annually.

The added capacity has increased the plant’s efficiency and bolstered its corn-buying flexibility, allowing GGE to better bridge times when farmers and elevators aren't shipping corn, such as holidays or during bad weather. Notably, GGE increased its receiving capacity from 40,000 bushels per hour to 65,000 bushels per hour.

Other big Sukup projects in recent years include Homeland Energy in Lawler, Iowa, Elite Octane in Atlantic, Iowa, RingETHANOLPRODUCER.COM | 27

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BINZILLA: Earlier this year, Sukup built the world’s largest free-span grain bin for Golden Grain Energy in Mason City, Iowa. The single container can hold 2.2 million bushels of corn.

PHOTO: SUKUP MANUFACTURING CO.

neck Energy in Onida, South Dakota, and a former Flint Hills Resources plant in Menlo, Iowa, now owned by POET. Sukup manufactured massive bins at each location and, for Homeland, Ringneck and POET-Menlo provided its complete package including elevators, grain bins, buildings and conveyers, along with support structures.

Following completion of the Ringneck project, Steve Sukup, vice-president and chief financial officer of Sukup and a member of Ringneck’s board of directors, said the job was the largest single-site deployment of Sukup equipment in number of pieces and dollar value. “As a company we’ve been expanding our commercial-scale material handling equipment offerings for the past several years,” he said. “This project really pulls it all together in a way that shows we can equip big commercial projects with the grain storage and handling equipment they need.”

With its headquarters in Sheffield, Iowa, a steel coil facility 30 minutes to the north in Manly and manufacturing 15 minutes to south in Hampton, Sukup is the

largest family-owned and operated grain bin manufacturer in the world. The components of its bins are manufactured in Iowa and constructed by a network of builderdistributors across the country. In fact, Sukup grain bins can be found all over the world.

The company was started in 1963 by Eugene Sukup and, like the ethanol industry, has continuously redefined itself through innovation. Sukup is known for innovations such as its patented double-ended stud bolt, which mitigates moisture problems. Sukup was also the first company to use bolts with a better coating to prevent rust, as well as sidewall splice plates that allow laminated sidewall sheets to be connected end-to-end instead of overlapped. The plates simplify construction and provide for a more watertight bin than using the traditional method of overlapping sheets. The company also offers wider bin decks for enhanced safety.

Larger bins also require enhanced structural support and roof capacities. “We’re building the largest of them with 150,000-pound roof capacities” Hansen says.

Feedstock

DOUBLING UP: In 2019, Sukup manufactured two massive grain bins for Elite Octane in Atlantic, Iowa, that hold nearly 2 million bushels of corn each.

PHOTO: SUKUP MANUFACTURING CO.

These and other innovations have kept Sukup busy with new projects in the ethanol industry, and Hansen expects an influx of new commercial orders in 2022, despite the high cost of steel.

With the price of sheet steel at nearly $2,000 a ton, two to three times its prepandemic price, the cost of corrugated steel grain bins has, in fact, risen. But Hansen says that hasn’t necessarily deterred

ethanol producers from moving forward with projects.

“It does present challenges,” Hansen says. “You’re looking at double or even triple the cost with some steel. Whether its coiled or tube steel. The supply chain has also been tight at times, and we have done everything we can to keep things moving. Labor has also been an issue—everyone is looking for employees.”

While the steel industry is working to bring both existing and new capacity online, the price of steel—and everything made from it—is expected to remain high for some time.

“We have a lot of interest for next year, but we’re not seeing all these issues being completely resolved by spring,” Hansen says.

“Lead time is longer than normal. It’s been that kind of year for everyone. This situation is not unique to our company, our distributors, or the grain storage industry. Everyone is feeling these price and supply chain issues— whether you’re buying a couch, a truck or a grain bin—and it’s hard to say when it will ease up.”

Hansen adds, “Costs may be up, but ethanol production is in a good place. We support ethanol, we truly believe in it, and we remain ready to serve producers whenever they need us.”

Author: Tom Bryan Contact: editor@bbiinternational.com

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Profile

ETHANOL’S NEXT OPEN ROAD Having just landed $17 million in funding, ClearFlame is poised to make ethanol-powered diesel engines a reality—and putting trucks on the road to prove it.

By Tom Bryan

In early 2020, When BJ Johnson told attendees of the National Ethanol Conference about a technology that could make diesel engines run on ethanol, he was asked how long it would take to get trucks and on the road. Johnson said it might take five

years, but it’s happening now. Had Johnson been asked about fundraising that day, he might have made an equally lowball prediction, not knowing his company would secure $24 million over the next 20 months—even landing Series A funding from John Deere—despite launching the company amid the tumult of a pandemic.

“I hate to say lucky, but when you look at what we’ve accomplished in the middle of this pandemic, it’s pretty remarkable,” says Johnson, ClearFlame CEO and cofounder. “The speed of our development is directly related to how our national dialogue on carbon has been amplified over the past year. There’s a growing sense of climate urgency now and people want immediate solutions rather than technology that is 10 or 20 years away.”

ClearFlame, first featured in Ethanol Producer Magazine in July of 2020, is an Illinois-based startup dedicated to the development 30 | ETHANOL PRODUCER MAGAZINE | DECEMBER 2021

of net-zero engine technology that enables low-carbon, renewable fuels—primarily ethanol—to be used in existing diesel engines, offering a low-emissions, low-cost alternative to diesel. According to Johnson, ClearFlame-enabled engines meet the performance and efficiency requirements for diesel engines while significantly reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and particulate matter, improving air quality and mitigating climate change.

In late October, the company secured $17 million in Series A financing, which will be used to accelerate the commercialization of its engine technology, targeting long-haul trucking applications first, then agriculture and power generation. The recent financing was led

by Breakthrough Energy Ventures with participation from the commodities trading company Mercuria, John Deere and Clean Energy Ventures.

Previously, ClearFlame received $4 million from the Iowa, Minnesota, Kansas and Illinois corn growers associations, the National Science Foundation, the U.S. Department of Energy and others.

The company also secured $3 million in seed financing in early 2020, which helped it establish an in-house R&D facility and accelerate prototyping.

With its coffers full, the company is ready to deploy technology in real-world demonstrations. “When I first presented at the National Ethanol Conference in 2020, we were still completing our testing on a Caterpillar research engine at Argonne National Lab,” Johnson says. “Since then, we’ve moved over to a Cummins X15 platform and completed that demo. Getting trucks on the road is now our top priority and it’s happening faster than we initially thought. We’re actually outfitting our first trucks right now and they’re going on the road soon.”

Johnson says ClearFlame’s technology is based on high-temperature combustion. The technology works by changing the way heat is managed within an engine by using insulation and managing exhaust flow. “If you get something hot enough, it will burn,” he says, explaining that diesel engines prefer easy-to-burn fuel. “Ethanol is high-octane, which means it’s hard to burn. But if you can get a diesel engine to run hotter, even a high-octane fuel like ethanol will burn in the same engine cycle.”

Exactly how ClearFlame achieves high-temperature combustion is technical and proprietary, but Johnson says it requires changes to only about 15% of the engine. “Once it’s done, the engine operates the same way it did before,” he says. “It even sounds like a diesel engine.”

While what’s under the hood remains largely the same, using ethanol in diesel engines would have profound economic and emissions benefits. Johnson says criteria pollutants (i.e., smog emissions including NOx) and CO2 are substantially reduced.

E98 or E85?

While ClearFlame’s technology is “fuel agnostic,” it has been optimized for ethanol. More specifically, the technology is being tested with E98, the denatured ethanol that is typically blended with gasoline. “For people who don’t know our story, the current narrative seems very ethanol centric, but we made this technology to be compatible with whatever fuel makes the most economic and environmental sense,” Johnson says. “Right now, that’s ethanol.”

The first diesel trucks being retrofitted to run on ClearFlame’s engine technology will run on E98, but the company is already working to make its technology compatible with E85. “With E85 blends varying widely, there is some engineering needed to make sure the engine knows what it’s getting. That functionality could be in place within a year or so,” Johnson says, explaining that the lowest-cost, most widely available fuel will ultimately win out.

While E98 is not currently available at retail, Johnson says it is available. “E98 is ubiquitous in terms of how ethanol is moved around the country for blending,” he says. “It would be ideal for co-ops, which could sell E98 directly and not have to worry about gasoline blending. There are some real advantages to E98, in terms of autonomy. And any fleet manager can purchase E98 from a fuel rack. It’s available.”

Johnson says that while E85 has the appeal of being available at the pump, E98 has an emissions and climate edge. “Long-term, if you’re trying reduce petroleum use and reduce carbon emissions, why not use the highest ethanol blend possible?”

ETHANOLPRODUCER.COM | 31

ENGINES OF CHANGE: Company cofounders Julie Blumreiter and BJ Johnson created ClearFlame five years ago after collaborating on graduate research at Stanford University. ClearFlame recently completed technology demonstration on a Cummins X15 diesel engine (right), converting it to run on E98.

PHOTO: CLEARFLAME ENGINE TECHNOLOGIES

Pivoting for Progress While ClearFlame is now well funded, it’s still in startup form.

It has established its headquarters in Geneva, Illinois, an hour west of Chicago, but its 16 employees are still spread out and working remotely. “We’ll likely continue to operate that way post-pandemic,” Johnson says, adding that the company’s engineering team is working together in person in Geneva.

Over the past year, much of Johnson’s time has been spent on fundraising while Julie Blumreiter, ClearFlame’s cofounder and chief technical officer, has remained focused on development work. “I’m still involved with engineering to some degree, but not on a day-today basis,” Johnson says. “Capital is the oxygen for any startup, but you also need to keep moving your technology froward while you’re fundraising. We’ve been able to divide and conquer those responsibilities quite well.”

Raising money while advancing tech requires agility, and ClearFlame has pivoted when necessary. The company initially intended to complete extensive engine demonstration work before starting its Series A fundraising, but putting the work on hold wasn’t ideal. So Johnson says ClearFlame used convertible notes and support from state corn groups to sustain momentum, achieving good results. “We could not have gotten trucks on the road by the end of the year had we not done it that way,” he says.

The Road Ahead With demonstration trucks putting on miles this winter, ClearFlame should be ready for fleet testing by late-2022. “We’ll move into alpha pilots and work out the early kinks in the field,” Johnson says. “Later in 2022, by Q4, we’ll start beta demonstrations with maybe 20 or 25 trucks—still test units, but with the goal of

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accumulating meaningful amounts of road miles. Two million road miles in the first year of beta testing could be possible.”

By 2023, Johnson says, ClearFlame will move towards a fully certified and tested product that can be retrofitted with exiting truck fleets. “Inside of five years, we’ll start expanding into other applications—gensets and tractors, in parallel, he says, explaining that the United States alone uses 40 to 45 billion gallons of on-road diesel fuel each year. “It’s a huge market. Including off-road, it's about 60 ETHANOL PRODUCER_HALF PG AD billion gallons annually.”

Johnson envisions ClearFlame’s technology having a potentially transformative impact on agriculture. He imagines farmers harvesting corn with combines powered by fuel made from the same grain.

“It’s a virtuous cycle,” he says. “Not only are you allowing the farmer co-op to be independent, with the corn, DDGS and ethanol moving from the fields to the plants to the railyards, but the whole environment would be running on its own fuel.”

As ClearFlame meets its near-term goals, it will ratchet up its engagement with engine manufacturers. While the company rolls out its first technology offering as a retrofit, it will work toward the goal of creating future products that are available through OEMs. Already, Johnson says, OEM interest in ClearFlame’s technology is picking up. “I think they’re waking up to what we're doing,” he says. “Two years ago, everyone agreed that EV cars were coming but diesel trucks weren’t going away. I don’t think that’s a given anymore.

The sector is changing fast, and people are starting to recognize that our technology would allow the whole diesel establishment to remain in place—engine production and maintenance, distribution and supply chain core competencies. If you can keep all that in place while switching to a more sustainable future by using ethanol, it’s an easy choice.”

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Process

Antibiotic Interactions in Ethanol Production:

Sharing a Decade of Data Evidence shows that effective drug combinations decrease the risk of bacterial contamination and antimicrobial resistance.

By Jenny Forbes and Cam Fowler

Recently, producers have asked Phibro Ethanol questions about antibiotic interactions. Ethanol producers want to know: Do drugs such as virginiamycin and penicillin work in synergy or do they have an antagonistic relationship? Is there a technical risk to using these drugs in combination day in and day out? In other words, are our historic practices damaging? The available information overwhelmingly demonstrates that the antimicrobial activities of virginiamycin and penicillin work well together. Specifically, evidence shows that effective drug combinations decrease the risk of bacterial contamination and antimicrobial resistance.

Understanding Drug Interactions Although the fields of human and animal medicine spend significant energy researching drug interactions (including antibiotic interactions), little research has been conducted specific to industrial applications. That said, medical research finds that drugs commonly used to treat infections and chronic disease in humans and animals often have negative (antagonistic) or positive (synergistic) effects when combined. Indeed, it is commonly accepted that antibiotics frequently interact, but few studies have been done comparing treatment interactions in commercial ethanol plants.

Despite the unknowns, ethanol producers often treat fermentations with virginiamycin, penicillin, or blends of these two antibiotics. Virginiamycin is a streptogramin type of antibiotic that inhibits the 50S ribosomal subunit of bacteria. Inhibiting the 50S ribosomal subunit interferes with protein synthesis and stops bacterial growth (referred to as (R) throughout the article). In contrast, penicillin is a beta-lactam antibiotic. Penicillin and antibiotics in the beta-lactam class work by interfering with bacterial cell wall production, often resulting in bacterial lysis and death (referred to as (W) throughout the article).

To address whether it’s safe or helpful to combine antibiotics in fermentation, this article will summarize data from scientific technical journals and present data generated in Phibro’s laboratory over the last decade. A number of independent, peer-reviewed technical studies indicate that combining drugs similar to virginiamycin and penicillin have a neutral to synergistic effect. Phibro’s

FIGURE 1: Adapted from Yeh P., et. al.1 demonstrating a synergistic drug interaction between cell wall inhibitors and 50S ribosome inhibitors.

FIGURE 2: Adapted from Yeh P., et. al.1 showing pairwise interactions between cell wall inhibitors (Drug X) and 50S ribosome inhibitors (Drug Y).

CONTRIBUTION: The claims and statements made in this article belong exclusively to the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of Ethanol Producer Magazine or its advertisers. All questions pertaining to this article should be directed to the author(s).

34 | ETHANOL PRODUCER MAGAZINE | DECEMBER 2021

FIGURE 3: A) Additive effect of blends of virginiamycin (VM) and penicillin (PEN). (B) Possible synergistic combinations of VM and PEN. PhibroXact™ contains a blend of both VM and PEN and was evaluated at different ratios in these examples.

data demonstrate that in more than 20,000 unique samples, there were no cases of antagonistic response with these two drugs. To conclude, the article will share Phibro’s guidance on how best to conduct similar research within a laboratory setting.

Journal Research Antibiotic interaction studies with penicillin or penicillin derivatives such as ampicillin are relatively common due to its importance in human medicine. However, studies using virginiamycin are not as available. The next best substitute is to look at studies that examine antibiotics with the same activity profile as virginiamycin. The study, “Functional classification of drugs by properties of their pairwise interactions1” (Yeh P. et al., 2006) mapped the interactions of different classes of antibiotics.

The drug interaction results can be seen in Figure 1, which was adapted from the study. In this graphic, a red line indicates synergism, a green line indicates antagonism, and no line indicates an additive effect.

The study tested the following R antibiotics (which can be considered similar in action to virginiamycin): Chloramphenicol (CHL), Clindamycin (CLI), Erythromycin (ERY), Spiramycin (SPR), and Fusidic acid (FUS). The study examined the following W antibiotics (which can be considered similar to penicillin): Piperacillin (PIP), Ampicillin (AMP), and Cefoxitin (FOX).

Figure 2, which again was adapted from this study, demonstrates drug interactions and pairwise interactions. The bar graph demonstrates bacterial presence with no drug (represented with “ ”), each drug used individually, and the combination of drugs. It shows that a combination of erythromycin and ampicillin (which represent virginiamycin and penicillin respectively) have a very high level of synergy. In fact, the interactions between W and R antibiotics are predominantly synergistic, with a few conditions additive or inconclusive. None of the W and R combinations in this study created an antagonistic response. This should give ethanol producers confidence that products such as virginiamycin and penicillin can be added together with very low risk of a negative drug interaction.

Phibro Ethanol Laboratory Research Phibro Ethanol has been evaluating drug interactions for approximately a decade. We instigated formal testing in 2012 and we began populating our database mid-2013. Phibro’s studies evaluated 4,090 unique samples with a minimum of five different drug combinations studied per

sample. The result is more than 20,000 samples evaluated from mid-2013 to mid-2021. In all these tests, there was not one instance of antagonistic drug interaction.

Phibro Ethanol’s laboratory studied virginiamycin and penicillin interactions using bacterial consortia (a mix of many bacteria strains) taken from thousands of customer samples by high-throughput antimicrobial sensitivity analysis using modified OmniLog5 technology. Phibro’s testing uses bacteria taken from industrial samples and monitors the bacterial growth in the presence of various concentrations of antibiotics and different combinations of antibiotics. It is a tool utilized frequently to determine the effectiveness of various antibiotic blends and helps achieve the best microbial control at the best antibiotic dose. These growth curves with blends and single antibiotic components rarely show antagonism or synergism. Instead, Phibro’s OmniLog results show that most blends look like an average of the two components used (additive behavior).

Figure 3A shows a 24-hour Omnilog where the blends (represented by PhibroXact, a combinatory product containing virginiamycin and penicillin) have an additive effect. If synergism or antagonism were present, you would expect PhibroXact results to be above (antagonism) or below (synergism) the lines for the individual components. Additive effects are quite common while synergistic impact (Figure 3B) is noticed occasionally.

Clinical studies often focus on single species of bacteria and not a consortium, making it challenging to utilize research studies to generalize performance in industrial fermentations. Typical fuel ethanol fermentations contain a consortium of bacteria, which helps to explain the predominance of additive results in OmniLog testing. In fermentation, using antibiotics with two modes of action can provide better coverage of a variety of microbes, and have longer lasting activity throughout fermentation. Indeed, utilizing drug interactions has been implemented for decades in the fuel ethanol industry.

How to Conduct Laboratory Evaluations In addition to external research and internal Phibro research supporting the use of combinatory antimicrobial products, Phibro can provide guidance on conducting independent laboratory research in this area. There are two predominant considerations: 1) bacterial selection criteria and 2) virginiamycin application. As previously referenced, there is a natural discussion surrounding the use of bacterial isolates vs. bacteETHANOLPRODUCER.COM | 35

Process rial consortia. When possible, Phibro believes strongly in using a bacterial consortium for analyses. This more closely represents ethanol plant conditions. It is highly critical to control all existing bacteria, not simply one bacterial isolate.

That said, there are occasionally times when using bacterial isolates is ideal. In those instances, it is best to choose a strain that commonly represents the bacterial populations found in ethanol fermentations and is thus process relevant.

Phibro’s data presented in the pie chart to the right (Figure 4) show the predominant bacterial genera found in ethanol plants. Because Phibro usually only identifies specific bacterial isolates when ethanol producers experience bacterial infections, these data, representing samples from nearly 100 unique plants, were usually collected during times of bacterial contamination.

When selecting bacteria to study in the laboratory, it’s critical to choose wisely. For example, the genus Pediococcus (in bold in Figure 4) can be described as a “bad actor” and should be avoided in laboratory settings because it represents only a tiny fraction of relevant bacterial contaminants.

Some Pediococcus species (and a number of other species) can also produce biofilms. When a bacterial organism produces a biofilm, treatment of that organism is challenging because the biofilm layer protects the organism. The ethanol industry is well aware that if biofilms become present within the process, a combination of thorough cleaning

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1.5% 2.7%

3.0%

0.3% 6.4%

5.2%

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Predominant Genera: Lactobacillus = 54.5% Lactococcus = 9.1% Enterobacter = 6.4%

Weissella = 5.8% Staphylococcus = 5.2%

Actinomyces Bacillus Bifidobacterium Clostridium Corynebacterium Enterobacter Enterococcus Klebsiella Lactobacillus Lactococcus Leuconostoc Pediococcus Staphylococcus Streptococcus Weissella

FIGURE 4: Phibro Ethanol database records of bacterial genus isolated from nearly 100 ethanol production facilities.

and antimicrobial treatment are necessary. All things considered, use of these types of organisms in laboratory settings can result in misleading conclusions.

Along with selecting the most useful bacteria, studies hoping to test antibiotic efficacy need to consider how to best utilize virginiamycin. Phibro Animal Health Corporation is the world’s only manufacturer of virginiamycin.

Post-virginiamycin production, the antibiotic active is designated either as an ethanol process aid (Lactrol®) or for use in animal feeds. Flow agents are incorporated that are specific to the end-use designation. Lactrol is formulated with hydrophilic agents while virginiamycin for animal feed is encapsulated for moisture protection until ingested by the animal. Lactrol is only sold by Phibro or licensed distributors and is only available under the trade-name Lactrol.

Virginiamycin products used in the ethanol industry, other than Lactrol, will have apparent solubility concerns. This makes lab testing of non-Lactrol virginiamycin troublesome and can lead to conflicting results. Bottom line, if a laboratory wants to test virginiamycin’s efficacy related to ethanol production, Lactrol should be the product of choice.

In conclusion, both external data and Phibro data overwhelmingly support the use of virginiamycin and penicillin in combination in a commercial ethanol production process. To adequately test this principle in a laboratory setting, proper selection of bacterial consortia or isolates is critical, as is the selection of the antimicrobial agent. Ethanol producers should feel comfortable using the tools available to them.

VOL. 7,6 (2009): 460-6.

3 Tyers M, Wright GD. Drug combinations: a strategy to extend the life of antibiotics in the 21st century. Nature Reviews Microbiology. 2019. 17(3):141-155.

4 J. B. GUNNISON,” Studies on Antibiotic Synergism and Antagonism: the Effect in vitro of Combinations of Antibiotics on Bacteria of Varying Resistance to Single Antibiotics.” 1953. Journal of Bacteriology. Aug;66(2):150-8 5 OmniLog IS A REGISTERED PRODUCT OF BIOLOG, INC.

6 Cokol, M., Chua, H.N., Tasan, M., Mutlu, B., Weinstein, Z.B., Suzuki, Y., Nergiz, M.E., Costanzo, M., Baryshnikova, A., Giaever, G., et al. Systematic exploration of synergistic drug pairs.

Mol Syst Biol. 2011. 7: 544-544.

7 Farha MA, Brown ED. Chemical probes of Escherichia coli uncovered through chemical-chemical interaction profiling with compounds of known biological activity. Chem Biol. 2010. 17(8):852-62.

8 Borisy AA, Elliott PJ, Hurst NW, Lee MS, Lehar J, Price ER, Serbedzija G, Zimmermann GR, Foley MA, Stockwell BR, Keith CT. Systematic discovery of multicomponent therapeutics. Proc Natl Acad Sci . 2003. 100: 7977–7982.

TRUST, EXPERIENCE & DEDICATION

Co-authors: Jenny Forbes Vice President, Products & Services Phibro Ethanol jenny.forbes@pahc.com Cam Fowler Senior Director, Technical Affairs Phibro Ethanol

That’s why you chose PREMIUM.

cam.fowler@pahc.com

References: 1 YEH, JUN- JUN & I TSCHUMI, ARIANE & KISHONY, ROY. (2006). YEH P, TSCHUMI AI, KISHONY R. Functional Classification of Drugs by Properties of Their Pairwise Interactions. Nature Genetics. 38. 489-94.

2 YEH, PAMELA J ET AL. “Drug Interactions and the Evolution of Antibiotic Resistance.” Nature Reviews Microbiology

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