2022 May Ethanol Producer Magazine

MAY 2022

RISING HIGH

TO GO LOW Western Plains Energy Installs Wind Power PAGE 24

PLUS

Pairing Up Ethanol, RNG PAGE 16

Maximizing Waste Heat PAGE 38

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Contents

16

PHOTO: CALGREN

24

PHOTO: WPE

30

PHOTO: ICM

38

PHOTO: BIOLEAP

MAY 2022 VOLUME 28 ISSUE 5

DEPARTMENTS 4

AD INDEX/EVENTS CALENDAR

6

EDITOR'S NOTE More Chronicles of CI Reduction

FEATURES 16 BIOGAS

Cleaning Up In California Calgren continues to grow its RNG output

By Tom Bryan

8

GRASSROOTS Monetizing Net-Zero and Net-Negative GHG Ethanol

By Tom Bryan

24

DRIVE More Biofuels Means Lower Gas Prices

By Emily Skor

12

By Luke Geiver

30

14

BUSINESS BRIEFS

43

MARKETPLACE

COPRODUCT

Equipping for High-Protein The innovation behind ICM's high protein platform

GLOBAL SCENE Biofuels Help Ensure Europe’s Energy Security and Sustainability

By Simona Vackeová

Scoring Returns with Renewables Ethanol plants invest in solar and wind power

By Brian Jennings

10

RENEWABLES

By Katie Schroeder

38

ENERGY

ON THE COVER To help lower its carbon intensity score—and its long-term energy costs—Western Plains Energy recently completed the installation of a wind turbine capable of generating the full 2.7 megawatts of electricity needed to run the ethanol plant.

PHOTO: WPE

Recovering to Reduce Utilizing waste heat DDGS dryer exhaust

By Melissa Anderson

Ethanol Producer Magazine: (USPS No. 023-974) May 2022, Vol. 28, Issue 5. Ethanol Producer Magazine is published monthly by BBI International. Principal Office: 308 Second Ave. N., Suite 304, Grand Forks, ND 58203. Periodicals Postage Paid at Grand Forks, North Dakota and additional mailing offices. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to Ethanol Producer Magazine/Subscriptions, 308 Second Ave. N., Suite 304, Grand Forks, North Dakota 58203.

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Editor's Note

More Chronicles of CI Reduction Not wholly by coincidence, three of the four features in this issue cover recent investments by ethanol plants to reduce fossil-based energy use and attain lower carbon intensity (CI) scores: the utilization of biogas, dryer exhaust energy recovery and onsite solar and wind power. But even this month’s outlying story about ICM’s high protein feed system isn’t out of place in our low-CI theme.

These clean energy stories came together more by happenstance than design, as we initially planned to cover the lead piece on biogas and renewable natural gas (RNG) two months ago. As it were, our story on Calgren Renewable Fuels’ success with biogas in California is a perfect match for May, which gets awesome exposure at the International Fuel Ethanol Workshop & Expo (FEW), taking place June 13-15 in Minneapolis, Minnesota. In “Cleaning Up In California,” on page 16, we set out to broadly cover biogas utilization for combined heat and power (CHP) in biorefining, but ended up focusing entirely on Calgren— save a sidebar on its Golden State counterpart, Aemetis, which is also using biogas for power and making RNG. The story describes Calgren’s special biorefinery in the lower Central Valley, which makes ethanol, biodiesel and RNG. The volume of the latter, Calgren’s president tells us, “just keeps growing.”

In “Scoring Returns with Renewables,” on page 24, we offer an exclusive first look at the wind turbine recently installed at Western Plains Energy in Oakley, Kansas, and a bevvy of renewable energy projects at Aemetis in Keyes, California. Like biogas and cogeneration, wind and solar continue to attract the interest of ethanol producers. A few years ago, WPE created a separate entity focused solely on a wind project, allowing its shareholders and other investors to participate. Late last year, a 2.7-megawatt turbine was commissioned (see cover). Aemetis isn’t involved with wind, but nearly every other renewable—solar, biogas and hydroelectric. It’s fascinating that two plants 1,300 miles away from each other are on the leading edge of the industry’s effort to reduce or eliminate fossil fuels from biorefining.

Jumping ahead (pun intended) to “Recovering to Reduce,” our page-38 story on Bioleap, we look at an existing technology that enables ethanol producers to capture and utilize waste heat from their DDGS dryer exhaust. A proven CI-score reducer already, the Dryer Exhaust Energy Recovery, or DEER, system reduces ethanol plant energy use by over 20%—while lowering water use, too. The DEER system has been around a while—it’s well tested—garnering strong endorsements from producers that have installed it, and keen interest from those who still might.

Finally, on page 30, we bring you “Equipping for High Protein,” a deeper dive into ICM’s Advanced Processing Package. Throughout the first half of 2022, our magazine helped produce a series of webinars about APP—which includes a host of customized specialty equipment that’s been thoroughly explained in our webinars and, now, in this magazine. By the time this issue is printed, ICM’s fourth APP-related webinar will have aired. The topic of that presentation—still available online—is “Lowering Your Carbon Score While Diversifying Revenue.”

Hey, maybe that story isn’t an outlier.

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6 | ETHANOL PRODUCER MAGAZINE | MAY 2022

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Grassroots Voice

Monetizing Net-Zero and Net-Negative GHG Ethanol

Brian Jennings

CEO American Coalition for Ethanol 605.334.3381 bjennings@ethanol.org

It seems like everyone has made a public pledge about contributing to a “net-zero” emissions future.

To underscore the level of seriousness ACE takes toward this effort, during its final meeting of 2021, the ACE Board of Directors adopted the following resolution: “The [Board] supports the adoption of policies at the state and/or federal level which recognize ethanol is part of the climate and health solution while crediting farmers and ethanol producers for activities, which will help ethanol reduce lifecycle GHG emissions by at least 70% on average compared to gasoline by 2030, and reach net-zero lifecycle GHG emissions by 2050.”

In the midst of these proclamations about achieving net-zero emissions by mid-century, EPA is currently revisiting its assumptions about the GHG emissions of biofuels. During this process, ACE has explained to EPA that today’s corn ethanol meets the definition of an “advanced biofuel” under the Renewable Fuel Standard, notwithstanding the politically-driven discrimination clause in the statute excluding “corn starch” ethanol from qualifying as an advanced biofuel.

According to the latest U.S. Department of Energy Greenhouse gases, Regulated Emissions and Energy use in Technologies (GREET) model, average corn ethanol reduces GHG emissions by 50 percent compared to gasoline. In other words, we do not need to wait for so-called next generation crops or biofuels—or EVs and an entirely new supply chain to support them—to immediately begin tackling climate change. Moreover, we are highlighting how climate-smart farming practices, efficiencies at ethanol plants, and the capture and sequestration of biogenic CO2 from facilities puts ethanol on a trajectory to reach both net-zero and net-negative emissions, a trajectory that is unique to ethanol.

We have also made it clear new policies will need to be implemented to increase the use of lowcarbon E15 and higher blends. Any new policy, whether it be a clean fuel standard adopted by a Midwest state such as Minnesota, or a new federal program, must adhere to the latest GREET model for making determinations about ethanol’s lifecycle GHG emissions, because EPA’s outdated analysis overstates reality.

The GREET model is the global gold standard. Unlike EPA’s 2010 assessment, the assumptions and estimates used by Argonne scientists in GREET are under constant review, and updates to the model occur annually. Not only do more than 40,000 users around the world depend upon GREET to help determine the lifecycle GHG impacts of fuel technologies, but the model is the basis for the assessments used under the California Low Carbon Fuel Standard and Oregon Clean Fuels Program. Legislation pending in Minnesota to create a clean fuel standard would statutorily require the use of the latest GREET model.

The GREET model is likely to be updated soon to account for the increased adoption of reduced tillage corn production, enhanced efficiency fertilizer use, and soil carbon sequestration from corn. When the GREET model reflects these updates, corn ethanol will approach net-zero GHG territory.

That’s why ACE is pushing market regulators such as EPA and the California Air Resources Board to apply soil carbon models and GREET to assign carbon credits for climate-smart farming practices that help reduce the GHG emissions of corn ethanol. CARB leans on the “need” for localized assessments as an excuse for not providing farm-level carbon credits for biofuels, despite the fact CARB willingly uses models to assign carbon penalties (such as land use change) to ethanol.

To breakthrough this stonewalling and convince market regulators to provide carbon credits for certain farming practices, ACE is leading a pilot project to pay farmers surrounding Dakota Ethanol to implement climate-smart practices that sequester carbon and other GHGs. We will collect field-level data to calibrate existing soil carbon models and validate the GHG benefits of these climate-smart farming practices. The ultimate goal is to increase confidence in existing models and enable farmers and ethanol producers to prove farm-level benefits while securing pathways to low carbon or clean fuel markets that will increase demand and value for their net-zero—or even net-negative—GHG ethanol.

8 | ETHANOL PRODUCER MAGAZINE | MAY 2022

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Drive

More Biofuels Means Lower Gas Prices

Emily Skor

CEO, Growth Energy 202.545.4000

eskor@growthenergy.org

In recent weeks, we’ve seen Russia’s war on Ukraine send uncertainty and volatility into the oil markets, causing oil prices to spike across the globe and threatening energy and economic security here at home. To offer immediate relief for American drivers at the pump and bolster American energy security, we’ve urged President Biden to turn to biofuels as a solution to high prices by increasing the volume of American-made, plant-based ethanol in the fuel supply. U.S. ethanol is trading at about a dollar less per gallon than unblended gasoline, and that discount could rise dramatically if oil prices continue to surge higher. E15 offers significant cost savings for consumers—on average up to ten cents per gallon, and in some parts of the country, up to 50 cents. Adding just five percent more ethanol to the standard E10 blend can unlock significant savings for hard-hit consumers. To reinforce higher blends’ cost savings, we recently launched a campaign, advocating for year-round E15 as a way to combat rising fuel costs and an opportunity to drive energy independence amidst the tensions in Ukraine.

Currently, retailers in 31 states across the country offer this affordable fuel, but with the returned restrictions on summertime E15 sales, this could mean fewer options at the pump, forcing consumers to pay even steeper fuel prices.

Earlier this spring, after calling on President Biden to increase access to E15 in order to address record high fuel prices, we were pleased to hear the White House reiterate that lifting the ban on summertime sales of E15 is “on the table,” and our team at Growth Energy is working to ensure that translates into action before the June 1 deadline.

We also joined industry allies in sending a letter to President Biden urging his administration to issue an emergency waiver to allow the sale of E15 during the summer driving season to ease the impact of disruptions in oil markets and skyrocketing fuel costs. Echoing our message to the White House, Senators Jon Thune (R-S.D.) and Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) led a bipartisan letter to the president calling for increased access to higher blends of homegrown biofuels to help curb the rising energy costs and displace Russian petroleum imports.

Our champions in Iowa are calling for action too. In a letter to EPA Administrator Michael Regan, members of the Iowa congressional delegation pressed for expanded use of domestic ethanol and biodiesel to meet global energy needs, which would strengthen our national security and advance the administration’s ambitious climate goals.

On both sides of the aisle, the message is clear: Americans need more homegrown biofuels to address rising gas prices and combat volatility in the global oil market. Biofuels like ethanol are a solution that’s ready today—we have enough capacity to replace all gasoline refined from banned Russian imports.

That’s why our bipartisan champions on the Hill introduced the Home Front Energy Independence Act, emphasizing the essential role that biofuels have in reducing prices at the pump. Led by Senators Joni Ernst (R-Iowa) and Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.), this legislation would make the sale of year-round E15 permanent, streamline E15 labeling, create a tax credit for higher biofuel blends, provide funding for E15 infrastructure, extend the biodiesel tax credit and ban imports of Russian petroleum products.

Even GasBuddy, a leading source on fuel costs, agrees that EPA should waive the summertime “Reid Vapor Pressure” regulations holding back the sale of E15. We can’t afford outdated summertime restrictions getting in the way of our energy security. We’ll continue to work with our allies on both sides of the aisle, and in the White House, to ensure that uninterrupted, year-round E15 remains at the top of the list of solutions for solving the energy crisis.

10 | ETHANOL PRODUCER MAGAZINE | MAY 2022

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Global Scene

Biofuels Help Ensure Europe’s Energy Security and Sustainability

Simona Vackeová

Secretary General ad interim, Director of Government Affairs ePURE, the European Renewable Ethanol Association vackeova@epure.org

Russia’s war in Ukraine has led the European Union to reconsider its approach to energy and food independence and highlighted the importance of sticking to its climate ambitions even in an uncertain world.

European renewable ethanol has an important role to play in this new reality: helping to reduce the EU’s dependence on fossil fuels, and imports of animal feed, by ensuring a dependable domestic supply.

The European Commission’s RePowerEU proposal to boost EU energy security is an important step to reducing dependence on imported crude oil and ensuring stable domestic production of fuel and food, while continuing the drive toward carbon-neutrality and a circular economy. The proposal focuses mainly on gas and electricity production—but it should also make a more explicit call for increased production of biofuels such as renewable ethanol. That’s because biofuels—a proven, domestically sourced technology for reducing emissions from road transport, and the leading source of renewable energy in transport—have a valuable strategic role to play in this effort.

Even as Europeans show solidarity with the people of Ukraine, more than ever they see the importance of reducing EU reliance on imported fossil energy. Making full use of domestic biorefineries that produce fuel, food, high-protein feed and other valuable coproducts can help the EU to fully realize its goals of achieving energy and food independence by mobilizing its entire bioenergy sector.

European renewable ethanol is proven to significantly reduce greenhouse-gas emissions from the petrol and hybrid cars that continue to predominate on Europe’s roads. It delivers results now and it’s readily available and affordable without requiring new infrastructure investments. Ethanol production in European biorefineries also contributes to EU food security by creating important high-protein animal feed that offsets the need to import soy meal, as well as other coproducts for food and beverage applications and—as was demonstrated so vividly during the Covid-19 pandemic—for hand sanitizers.

The equation is simple: without biofuels in the transport mix, Europe would be even more reliant on imported fossil fuels, and more exposed to global market fluctuations. As the most recent Eurostat EC SHARES report illustrated, all biofuels together account for over 90% of renewables in transport. Restricting the contribution of such biofuels to climate targets only opens the door for even more reliance on fossil fuel.

The questions about the sustainability of crop-based biofuels and their impact on agriculture and the environment have been answered repeatedly; we know which biofuels are good and which are bad. In fact, in its Renewable Energy Progress reports, the European Commission recently debunked many of the old “food vs. fuel” myths. To be used in transport, EU biofuels must meet stringent sustainability criteria, and there is no justification for restricting them.

Meanwhile, even as the EU considers an end-date for the internal combustion engine, Europeans continue to buy and drive petrol and hybrid cars. Renewable ethanol remains the most immediate, cost-effective, sustainable and socially inclusive solution for reducing emissions from these vehicles—which will be on the roads for a long time to come.

As the EU aims to increase its energy independence and steps up its ambitions to fight climate change, it should not overlook the full potential of domestically produced renewable ethanol. Importantly, the EU should also resist efforts to compromise the existing policy framework and GHG emission reduction targets regulating biofuels at EU level, which could undermine Green Deal ambitions, jeopardize the internal market and hamper efforts to ensure Europe’s energy independence.

Even in an uncertain geopolitical environment, the EU can still stay true to its goal of carbon-neutrality.

12 | ETHANOL PRODUCER MAGAZINE | MAY 2022

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BUSINESS BRIEFS PEOPLE, PARTNERSHIPS & PROJECTS

Boubin to lead global ethanol export development at USGC As Brian Healy, director of global ethanol market development, prepares to transition out of his position at the U.S. Grains Council, Mackenzie Boubin will join the USGC in Boubin early May as the director of global ethanol export development.

Boubin has a thorough understanding of ethanol facilities and farming operations,” said Ryan LeGrand, USGC president and CEO. “Her enthusiasm for building markets and her strong desire to work for the council will serve her and us well in

her new role. We look forward to having Mackenzie join the council team in May.” Boubin has many years of experience building an extensive network of agricultural and environmental industry-related contacts, and currently serves as the biofuels and industry relations director at the Minnesota Corn Growers Association. In that capacity, Boubin has been in close contact with USGC stakeholders, and her duties there have had direct ties to the work of the USGC. Prior to her time at Minnesota Corn, Boubin worked as a refined fuels sales account representative at CHS and the Minnesota Bio-Fuels Association.

Agribrasil partners with ICM to build corn ethanol plant

ICM and Agribrasil have signed an agreement to develop a greenfield dry mill corn ethanol plant in Mato Grosso, Brazil.

The facility will utilize ICM’s proprietary technologies for corn oil recovery, selective milling, fiber removal and more. According to ICM, these technologies will allow Agribrasil to maximize ethanol production and distillers corn oil (DCO) recovery. Through cogeneration, Agribrasil will also be able sell over 55,000 megawatts of surplus electricity back to the grid.

The plant will have a grinding capacity of 1,700 metric tons of corn daily, producing over 260 million liters (70 MMgy) of anhydrous ethanol per year. It will also produce over 9,000 metric tons of DCO and 185,000 metric tons of standard DDGS. Brazil has long depended on sugar cane as a feedstock for ethanol production.

However, the country’s abundant supply of corn has become an increasingly popular alternative for ethanol production.

Ethanol Producer Magazine will feature an in-depth story on corn ethanol production in Brazil in the June issue.

Navigator CO2 commits to union labor, signs on Siouxland Ethanol

Navigator CO2 Ventures LLC has signed letters of intent (LOI) to use union labor for the construction of its Heartland Greenway carbon dioxide pipeline. The agreement includes four national labor unions: the International Union of Operating Engineers, United Association of Union Plumbers and Pipefitters, Laborers’ International Union of North America, and the International Brotherhood of Teamsters.

Heartland Greenway’s carbon capture and sequestration system is designed

to provide biofuel producers and other industrial customers with a long-term and cost-effective means to strengthen their business through reducing their carbon footprint. Once completed, the pipeline will capture up to 15 million metric tons of CO2 per year. Construction of the roughly 1,300-mile pipeline system is expected to begin in 2024. Its path will run through Illinois, Iowa, Minnesota, Nebraska and South Dakota, with sequestration occurring in Illinois.

Navigator has entered into long-term agreements with several U.S. ethanol producers including Valero and Siouxland Ethanol LLC, which signed on to the project in March.

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Brazil eliminates tariffs on imported ethanol through 2022

Brazil’s Ministry of Economy announced in late March that the country has waived its import tariff on several products, including ethanol, through the end of 2022. The ethanol tariff was previously set at 18 percent.

The government said the tariff reductions aim to alleviate inflationary pres-

sures resulting from the pandemic, which have been further aggravated by Russia’s war on Ukraine. The reduction applies to undenatured ethyl alcohol of an alcoholic strength by volume of 80 percent or more with a water content of one percent or less.

This is the second time in recent months the Brazilian government has reduced its tariff on ethanol imports. In November 2021 the country enacted a unilateral 10 percent reduction of import tariffs on 87 percent of all goods and services through the end of 2022, including ethanol. At that time, the ethanol tariff was reduced from 20 percent to 18 percent.

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Biogas

Cleaning Up In

a i n r o f i l a C

In the lower Central Valley, Calgren Renewable Fuels makes three biofuels—ethanol, biodiesel and renewable natural gas—and the latter operation just keeps growing.

By Tom Bryan

ROUTING RENEWABLES: Systems for biomethane cleanup to RNG, which involves the removal of hydrogen sulfide and carbon dioxide, are tucked into the tightly packed infrastructure at Calgren Renewable Fuels in Pixley, California.

PHOTO: CALGREN

As out-of-state ethanol producers strive for lower carbon intensity scores to make good in California’s market, one legacy low-CI producer in the Golden State is ironically more focused on a different output—renewable natural gas.

“We’ve been at this—dairy digester, manure-derived biogas production—for some time now, and it’s worked out really well,” says Lyle Schlyer, president of Calgren Renewable Fuels LLC in Pixley, California. “The bulk of our biogas doesn’t power our biofuel plants. It goes to RNG, which is a more profitable end use. It earns us a D3 RIN, which we don’t receive when the biogas is used for energy onsite.”

Calgren, a 58 MMgy corn dry mill built in 2009, primarily rails in corn from the Midwest. Schlyer says the plant is currently running at a relaxed pace. “I’d like to say we we’re at full capacity,” he says, “but that’s seldom the case.”

To be clear, Schlyer says, the ethanol plant is in nice shape and running well—partially powered by biogas—as is Calgren’s colocated 5 MMgy biodiesel plant, which utilizes brown grease (trap grease, animal waste, etc.) and distillers corn oil (DCO) at about 16 | ETHANOL PRODUCER MAGAZINE | MAY 2022

a 50/50 ratio. “We initially thought we’d use less brown grease— maybe 20%—but ended up hitting a higher number,” he says, adding that the biodiesel plant has been a “challenging but fruitful” part of Calgren’s biorefining experience since it came online in 2019.

“We’ve had to learn a lot over the past few years, but it’s worked out nicely. The brown grease aspect has been especially good.”

Calgren, which operates another ethanol plant of the same size and design in south-central Kansas (Pratt Energy LLC), has morphed its Pixley biorefinery into what it is today—an integrated ethanol/biodiesel/RNG complex—through stages of layered investment. It’s onsite anaerobic digester, paired with a combinedheat-and-power plant, came online in 2015 and can produce up to 11 MW of power. Its biodiesel and RNG ventures started a few years later.

Schlyer describes Calgren’s biogas involvement as two separate but related operations: (1) biogas production for onsite energy; and (2) biogas production and conversion to pipeline-quality RNG, or as he calls it, RCNG. The biogas digester on the Pixley campus, a modified plug-flow design, produces an industrial-grade biomethane derived from dairy manure, biodiesel wash water and other substrates. “We primarily use slurry from the nearest dairy in that

digester, but it is permitted for a wide range of feedstocks,” Schlyer says. “Because it’s not exclusive to dairy manure, however, we can’t use that biogas for D3 RIN generation through RNG, so we use it as a process fuel to make ethanol and biodiesel.”

The way Calgren utilizes its onsite biogas for energy is as unique as the raw materials it comes from. Schlyer says the biogas is typically not used to generate electricity alone, but rather process heat and power. “We have just generated electricity from time to time, but because of the way we have to allocate electricity under the California Low Carbon Fuel Standard, the more prudent approach for us is to use biogas to generate thermal energy.”

By using biogas to help fire its thermal utility—which requires the biomethane to be cleansed of sulfur but not CO2—Calgren lowers the CI score of its ethanol and biodiesel by about two points each. Calgren’s current ethanol CI score is just under 59, a number based on the plant’s biogas utilization, ultra-efficient steam utilization (its distillation-dehydration-evaporation system designed by Thermal Kinetics uses steam four times) and selling all of its distillers grains wet, among other factors..

Calgren’s two cogen units run more efficiently when they are “pedal to the metal,” Schlyer says, so the company typically runs

them at full rate and sells any excess power back to the grid through a feed-in tariff with the regional utility, Southern California Edison.

The site of the biorefinery is as distinctive as Calgren’s business model, with the entire complex packed into a relatively small triangular lot between a two-lane county road to the west and a rail line and busy freeway (Route 99) to the east. “We’ve squeezed a lot into this little site plan,” Schlyer says. “There’s so much here—a digester, biogas cleanup, ethanol, biodiesel, cogen and even a collocated CO2 liquefaction plant.”

The branch of the biorefinery getting the most attention right now, however, is the biogas cleanup facility, which upgrades raw dairy digester biogas into pipeline-grade RNG. While Calgren’s original digester remains on site, subsequent digesters have been set up miles away at area dairies. Since late 2018, Calgren has been processing biogas from several dairies in the area. “We pipeline biogas from those sites to our facility and clean it up,” Schlyer says.

“The newer digesters—we’re up to 14, plus another three that we [receive] from, and building more—are primarily covered lagoon digesters, and we capture the methane and CO2 that would otherwise be emitted, so we get a credit for that. More importantly, we get a cellulosic RIN for the RNG that we produce.”

ETHANOLPRODUCER.COM | 17

ETHANOLPRODUCER.COM | 17

Biogas

XXX: Xxxx PHOTO: XXXX

LINED UP: An extensive underground biogas pipeline directly connects 14 dairies to Calgren's RNG production facility. More dairies are currently adding digesters and joining the pipeline.

PHOTO: CALGREN

ONSITE ENERGY: Calgren uses a combined-heat-and-power (CHP) system at its Pixley biorefinery that generates excess electricity, which is sold back to the grid.

PHOTO: CALGREN

18 | ETHANOL PRODUCER MAGAZINE | MAY 2022

The process of upgrading raw biomethane to RNG involves, among other things, removing hydrogen sulfide and carbon dioxide. California has tight specifications for RNG. Ironically, though, diary digester biogas is not hard to purify.

“Biogas from dairy manure, funny enough, is pretty clean,” Schlyer says. “It really has just a little bit of hydrogen sulfide and some CO2 in it, as opposed to landfill gas, which has more siloxanes and other bad actors to clean up.”

Schlyer estimates that Calgren’s RNG production is close 500,000 MMBtu per year. “It’s a lot of gas,” he says. “And we just keep adding to it.”

While Calgren’s RNG production has little or nothing to do with its ethanol and biodiesel plants, the company views the three production flows as parts of an integrated biorefining operation with synergies that make each branch more efficient.

“We think of everything as essentially connected, and we have incredibly talented operators running the whole system. They all work together to run the various operations,” Schlyer says, explaining the company’s early plan. “We always envisioned a renewable fuel complex, and we initially envisioned using more biogas to run the biofuel plants—and we still may—but biogas today can be turned into RNG, not just for use as a transportation fuel but for any number of uses. It could be

Aemetis also Going All-In on Biogas/RNG In Keyes, California, Aemetis Inc. has optimized its unique geographic location in a way that truly highlights the benefits of biogas integration and usage. Starting roughly a year and half ago, the 60 MMgy advanced biofuel producer began using biogas to directly power a boiler at the plant. Doing so allowed Aemetis to expand its dairy-based biogas business.

“We are in the middle of the world’s largest dairy shed,” says Eric McAfee, CEO of Aemetis. With a $4.1 million grant to construct a biogas upgrading facility, Aemetis was able to utilize a pipeline already delivering biogas from more than a dozen anaerobic digesters at dairies in two California counties. This January, the company also completed a biogas pipeline spanning 36 miles across multiple dairy digester sites. The California Air Resource Board, through the California Energy Commission, supplied grant money for the pipeline.

In early April, Aemetis successfully completed testing of its biogas-to-RNG upgrading and compression facility. Pacific Gas & Electric is now conducting final tests of the utility gas pipeline interconnection—already constructed—which will enable the injection of RNG into PG&E’s pipeline. Ultimately, Aemetis would like to grow the operation to include more than 60 dairies and capture more than 1.6 million MMBtu of biomethane per year.

ALL RENEWABLES: While producing RNG, Aemetis is also transitioning completely away from fossil fuels, running its Keyes, California, biorefinery on renewable electricity and biogas-derived power.

PHOTO: AEMETIS

For ethanol facilities looking at biogas integration, McAfee says the opportunity is two-fold. Producers can produce and sell RNG while also integrating biogas power into their ethanol operation, which reduces the plant’s CI score (the CI of biogas is negative 426 compared to natural gas at plus 100). “I think people should be trying as hard as possible to get into dairy or swine biogas,” he says.

-Luke Geiver

ETHANOLPRODUCER.COM | 19

Biogas

MULTI-FUEL STRATEGY: Over the past 13 years, Calgren has continually added to its biorefining complex, which now includes ethanol and biodiesel production, carbon dioxide capture (for commercial use) and RNG processing and compression for pipeline delivery.

PHOTO: CALGREN

DELIVERED FROM DAIRIES: Specialized equipment compresses and removes moisture from raw biogas before it is sent from dairies to Calgren, where it is cleaned up and compressed again to pipeline-grade RNG. PHOTO: CALGREN

used to make electricity for Teslas. We’re just not sure what tomorrow will bring.” The RNG produced at Calgren's facility is mostly used as a carbon-negative fuel for heavy-duty vehicles like transit buses and long-haul trucks, but it can also be delivered to customers to generate clean electricity and heat homes and businesses, which is what Southern California Gas Co. plans to eventually do.

Just a few years ago, it was reported that Calgren’s affiliated dairy digesters represented the manure waste from over 65,000 20 | ETHANOL PRODUCER MAGAZINE | MAY 2022

cows in the Pixley area, but Schlyer says that number is over 100,000 today. “Candidly, our diary digester work has been so successful that it’s hard to not keep building more,” he says, describing how the company sells RNG to SoCalGas, which has committed to replacing 20 percent of its traditional natural gas supply with RNG by 2030.

By some accounts, Calgren is one of the largest producers of RNG derived from dairy digester biogas in the world, but Schlyer says he isn’t keeping tabs on other producers. “I’m really not sure if we’re one of the largest, but it wouldn’t surprise me,” he says. “We are building out more digesters now, and we’ve been continuously expanding for some time. We’ve got another half dozen digesters under development today, and we’ll likely add a few more after that.”

Under state law in California, dairies and other sources of methane emissions must reduce their emissions by 40 percent by 2030. If they don’t, they could be mandated to do so without the benefit of remaining eligible for environmental credits. But Schlyer says it’s not the stick, but the carrot, that’s driving California dairies to capture biogas.

“We write them checks,” he says. “Those dairies end up with another revenue source, and they become part of something really unique and right; they become little energy producers. With our help, and sometimes by themselves, they’re capturing biomethane that would otherwise be released into the atmosphere. It’s a good deal for everybody.”

Author: Tom Bryan Contact: editor@bbiinternational.com

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Renewables

SCORING RETURNS WITH

RENEWABLES With the decarbonization movement underway, ethanol producers installing solar and wind power offer a blueprint—and benefit-reveal—for carbon intensity score reduction.

By Luke Geiver

From Kansas to California, ethanol producers are putting greater focus—and investment—into lowering their carbon intensity scores. The com-

bination of financial incentive, participation requirements linked to the California renewable fuel market, and a growing public mandate to push the transportation sector to lower carbon emissions, has created both a challenge and an opportunity for producers.

The opportunity is two-fold. Production facilities executing on multi-pronged plans to decarbonize are earning access to the California market and its insatiable need for clean liquid fuel in compliance with its state-mandated carbon-level requirements.

More broadly, plants working to lower their respective carbon scores are helping the biofuel sector graft onto the leading edge of climate change mitigation and the quest for net-zero emissions. The challenge for producers directing both mind- and monetary-capital to their carbon scorecards is complex. But, as a handful of early adopting facilities have shown, adding wind, solar, combined heat and power (CHP), carbon 24 | ETHANOL PRODUCER MAGAZINE | MAY 2022

accounting or other carbon score reduction strategies can not only yield bottom-line results, but be accomplished without impeding daily operations.

Regional Renewables In 2019, Western Plains Energy’s team running the ethanol plant in Oakley, Kansas, committed to lowering its carbon intensity score. Derek Peine, general manager of WPE, says the plant adopted a multi-phase plan to decarbonize its production. To help, WPE partnered with Faith Technologies Inc., Juhl Energy and GE Renewable Energy. FTI served as the engineering, procurement and construction player while Juhl Energy, a clean energy solutions provider, acted as the lead developer for WPE. Although Peine and his team had identified several pathways to lower the plant’s carbon score, supplementing a portion of the plant’s fossil-based energy with wind offered the quickest option. In 2019, WPE created a separate entity focused solely on the wind project, allowing its shareholders and investors to participate. Because the site’s capacity factor—or its ability to produce wind—was high, the team knew harnessing the power of the Kansas plains

WATT PURPOSE: To help lower its carbon intensity score—and its long-term energy costs—Western Plains Energy recently completed the installation of a wind turbine capable of generating the full 2.7 megawatts of electricity needed to run the ethanol plant.

PHOTO: WPE

would not present any major daily hurdles.

The issue, Peine explains, was in the size of the wind project and the location.

“Everyone wants to do industrial size wind farms or a residential size project,” Peine says. “There are not a lot of wind turbine installation projects in the ones and twos.”

To overcome the sizing issue, WPE turned to FTI and Juhl. “This is a unique niche in the market. What we are talking about here is using a full-scale industrial turbine in an installation that is onsite for [industrial application],” says Clay Norrbom, president of Juhl Energy. “That is where it is pretty unique.”

The principal objective of the wind turbine installation project from the outset was different from most wind generating goals. WPE wanted to replace the 2.7 MW of electricity needed to run its plant. That’s

it. There was never a plan to push excess wind energy back to the grid. As Peine explains, in WPE’s part of the country, wind energy is abundant and, in some cases, reverting wind energy production back to the grid can actually cost money.

Norrbom’s connection to GE Renewable Energy gave WPE access to the wind giant’s options for industrial turbines. FTI, a company that has worked with Juhl on a handful of other similar installations, worked to locate and install the wind power generating system. For the entire system to act as a carbon intensity score reducer, it had to be connected behind the ethanol plant’s electrical meter. According to Charlie Fredrickson, vice president of EnTech Solutions (a division of FTI), doing that makes a project inherently difficult.

Norrbom says a lot of time was spent working with utility partners to figure out

how to make the project work technically, within permitting regulations and for what WPE needed. Getting a construction crew—normally suited for an entire wind farm buildout with concrete pads and other infrastructure—wasn’t easy, but doable for a one-off. “Whenever you are talking about getting close to a plant or a facility like this, most wind farms you try to develop as far from other residences and businesses as possible,” Norrbom says.

After FTI and Juhl worked to right-size the turbine, FTI oversaw the pre-construction and then the full build-out and integration. The turbine pad is roughly 60-feet in diameter. The EPC team did the land work, turbine assembly and most electrical wiring of the entire system prior to erecting the tower. After the mechanical installation was complete, multiple parties involved helped test the system prior to commissioning. Fi-

nal commissioning did require a short plant shutdown (a few hours), but the outcome was seamless, according to Peine.

“From a plant operational standpoint, it doesn’t change anything,” he says. “The operations team doesn’t even know it is there because it is fully integrated.”

As part of GE Renewables service, they remote monitor the turbine continuously. Fredrickson’s team also monitors the turbine. Norrbom says the project came in on time and budget. From start to finish, including site survey, engineering designs and waiting on the actual turbine blades and tower pieces to be built and delivered, the wind endeavor took roughly one year. Depending on land access and permitting in each county or state, the process can take longer, Fredrickson says.

Norrbom’s approach to project financing is straightforward, but also flexible. “We ETHANOLPRODUCER.COM | 25

PROVABLE POWER: For the entire wind energy system to act as an effective carbon intensity score reducer, it was connected behind the ethanol plant’s electrical meter, ensuring that the renewable electricity is verifiable.

PHOTO: WPE

know that capital doesn’t grow on trees.

A lot of producers have other uses for it.

We try to keep a very open, transparent approach and simply cut to the chase,” he says. In some cases, Juhl will own a project … if a customer doesn’t want to.” Although Juhl and FTI have completed a handful of these single turbine wind installation projects across the country, there are few, if any, that are like the WPE project.

“We pride ourselves on helping our customers create good business solutions, and right now the ethanol producers are at a pretty important juncture,” Fredrickson says. “They have a lot of pressure to reduce carbon and increase production, all while showing the positive impact they are making.”

Fredrickson, Norrbom and Peine all agree that renewable energy applications in

ethanol production are as physically genuine as they come. While some industrial facilities can “greenwash” their systems by purchasing wind or other renewable energy offsite to show they are participating in renewable energy production, ethanol facilities do not have that option when it comes to carbon intensity score reduction. “The energy has to be produced and consumed onsite,” Norrbom says.

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Renewables ing the turbine industry and how to work with your local utility is important. And like most things, the key to all of this is to get good partners.”

COMING TOGETHER: With the help of Faith Technologies Inc., Juhl Energy and GE Renewable Energy, WPE’s wind project came in on time and on budget. From start to finish—including site survey, delivery of the turbine blades and tower pieces, and construction—the project took roughly one year. It was completed in late 2021.

PHOTO: WPE

Peine and his team in Kansas are fully aware of the benefits related to true renewable energy production and use at their plant. The sector of the economy with the largest carbon emissions profile by volume is transportation, he notes. “Twenty-nine percent of all emissions come from transportation,” he says. “Anything we in the ethanol industry can do to help reduce the carbon profile is important.”

It is clear WPE believes in wind. The plant is already evaluating more wind energy to power expanded operations and other power needs. Peine is proud that his team, including FTI and Juhl, were able to provide a blueprint for producers across the country looking to get into wind power installation onsite. “The ethanol industry is good at process technology improvements,” he says. “With wind, understand-

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42% Lower

Catching the California Sun Wind installations located on the meter side of ethanol facilities may be a new occurrence across the industry, but for some entities like California-based advanced biofuel producer Aemetis Inc., harnessing the benefits of renewable technology is nothing new. Over the last six months, Aemetis, led by CEO Eric McAfee, has been busy with several projects. The plant has signed an agreement to purchase a new expansion site, signed MOUs with eight airlines for the supply of renewable fuel, completed a seven-mile biogas pipeline and also started or completed projects involving solar and battery storage.

“Decarbonizing ethanol is the future,” McAfee says about his plant’s ambitious plans to replace existing process infrastruc-

Renewables ture with renewables. Like Peine, McAfee points to the requirements of the California Air Resource Board to reach a specific carbon intensity score to sell biofuel into the state’s massive market.

To date, the plant has completed several renewable energy additions that have lowered its CI score and made the company a major supplier of fuel to the state. To help power the plant’s operations, a roughly 2 MW solar array was constructed with an additional 1.9 MW battery storage set-up.

Other producers are on the same track with renewables. In 2018, Alto Ingredients became the first ethanol producer in the country to utilize solar to power one of its plants, installing roughly 5 MW of onsite power. Other biofuel companies have also turned to solar, including Gevo and POET, which installed a 400-kilowatt solar array at its company headquarters last year.

At Aemetis’ Keyes, California, plant, natural gas power has been substituted for a combination of solar and hydroelectric power. In addition to solar, battery storage and hydroelectric, Aemetis utilizes a Mitsubishi Chemical Zebrex ethanol water separation system which uses electricity instead of molecular sieves. McAfee says the facility is also utilizing mechanical vapor recompression that uses electrical fans to recompress steam. A series of heat exchangers helps to more efficiently provide heat and help with energy use. The theme, he says, is to change out as many systems as possible to impact the CI score.

The thing that stands out, however, is steam reuse. Mechanical vapor recompression provides the plant's main energy savings (followed by the Zebrex system). In 2018, Aemetis worked with Mitsubishi and ICM Inc. to build the largest system of its type. Already used in more than 70 alcohol production plants worldwide, the system can reduce energy consumption during biofuel production by nearly 25 percent. The continuous membrane dehydration technology separates water from ethanol for purification into fuel-quality biofuel.

To aid in the use of the solar array and associated battery storage set-up, Aemetis 28 | ETHANOL PRODUCER MAGAZINE | MAY 2022

SUN STATIONS: Last year, the nation’s largest ethanol producer, POET, installed a 400-kilowatt solar array at its corporate headquarters in Sioux Falls (above) and isn’t ruling out incorporating solar power with ethanol production. Meanwhile, in Keyes, California, Aemetis is currently installing a roughly 2 MW solar array with battery backup.

PHOTO: POET

has also installed an Allen Bradley decision control AI-based management system for all of the energy use in the plant. Because Aemetis is surrounded by dairy operations, the facility has also invested and integrated heavily into biogas production and usage (see page 19). The California Energy Commission provided roughly $8 million in funding for some of the solar and electricity-based work.

McAfee says sound regulatory management of existing biofuel policy is virtually all that’s needed to de-risk the integration of more renewable power with ethanol production. “Decarbonization of fuels relies on enforcement of federal laws (RFS) and state law (LFCS),” he says, stressing that the risk with renewables is not in technology, financing or construction. “The risks reside in the ongoing violation of federal law by not announcing blending percentages, and not enforcing the federal gallon mandate, [allowing waivers] … [and not] increasing the usage of federal LCFS credits.”

Like McAfee in California, Peine in Kansas sees a case for renewables on many fronts. WPE has identified three components to its carbon intensity score. The first is carbon sequestration. Many entities are looking at the Oakley site as an opportunity for sequestration due to favorable geologic conditions. The second area WPE has identified for CI reduction is linked to grain (i.e., the grain coming into the plant). The team is currently working with corn sup-

pliers to better assess each farm’s own CI score, which in turn will help WPE’s overall CI score. Part of that process also involves WPE petitioning CARB to use a CI score on a per-farm basis for its grain inputs, as opposed to a nationwide-based average score already assigned by CARB. And like Aemetis, Peine says WPE is also focusing on new operational efficiencies. To start, his team has focused on ways to reduce natural gas inputs, followed by efficiency improvements, to drive down overall demands.

“Our industry has an opportunity to really show its value,” Peine says.

Both Norrbom and Fredrickson agree that many more renewable-based technology installations will be coupled with biorefining. Fredrickson’s team has several more technologic tools in the toolbox outside of the common options like wind or solar.

“There is a true solid business case behind [renewables] and it is about carbon reduction and the value it brings,” Fredrickson says.

Peine and his team are already working on new renewable based projects, and despite the cost to do so, his team is genuinely enthused for the future of ethanol in conjunction with carbon score reduction efforts. “It is really exciting to be a part of an industry that is working on this aggressively.”

Author: Luke Geiver Contact: editor@bbiinternational.com

Coproducts

EQUIPPING FOR HIGH-PROTEIN Combining existing and new technologies, ICM is helping ethanol producers leap into high-protein feed production.

The company is taking a unique approach to marketing, showing customers how its specialty equipment works to clearly explain what it yields.

By Katie Schroeder

The ability to produce new and enhanced coproducts has helped ethanol producers stay afloat through difficult times—the low-margin environment of the pandemic among them. Corn oil extraction, which thrust producers into new feed and fuel markets a decade ago, was the industry’s first real move past first-generation coproducts—and it proved to be a difference maker. Now, high-protein feed production, already on the doorsteps of aquaculture, poultry and pet food, is poised to be the next. Competing for business in the still nascent high protein space, ICM Inc. is offering an Advanced Processing Package that gives

30 | ETHANOL PRODUCER MAGAZINE | MAY 2022

producers the ability to make 50% protein, yeast-enriched feed—trademarked Protomax—while increasing plant efficiency and lowering carbon intensity.

“Our industry has long been plagued by undervaluing our coproducts, largely because there’s this perfectly imperfect pile, not truly designed for any individual animal species,” says Matt Durler, vice president of feed development with ICM, referring to standard DDGS. “Through APP we give the plant flexibility to design feeds best [suited] for their target markets. This reduces waste in the value chain and, overall, makes it a more efficient production system, adding value to both the producer and the end user.”

Ultimately, ICM says the installation of APP should boost ethanol plant profitability—providing an “EBITDA

uplift” with the added benefits of improved efficiency and a more diversified product portfolio.

“At a high level, I would say ethanol producers today, and over the last five years, have felt the pain of really bad times and the joys of really good times,” says Adam Anderson, ICM product manager. “In any environment, having an increase in your EBITDA is nothing but

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a benefit. Our APP system, with its fully integrated approach, brings the high value of diversified feed products and diversified revenue streams while also coupling that with increased efficiencies, consistent protein production [and] opportunity for a reduced carbon footprint … at the lowest OPEX possible.”

APP Systems There are four key technologies that make up the APP technology platform: Selective Milling Technology (SMT) and Fiber Separation Technology (FST)—both integrated before fermentation—and Feed Optimization Technology (FOT) and Thin Stillage Solids System (TS4) technology, in-

tegrated post-distillation. The APP system separates the process stream into five clean piles, which producers can then combine at their discretion to fit their unique market. The piles include fiber, solubles, yeast, protein with yeast, and distillers corn oil (DCO).

ETHANOLPRODUCER.COM | 31

Coproducts Although these four technologies can work separately, they are used together to produce Protomax feed. “They bring the highest value to the plant collectively, but each technology brings an efficiency to the plant that is beneficial,” says Alex Wayman, ICM director of project development. Wayman explains that certain customers have taken a stairstep approach to adopting APP, installing parts of the package with the goal of eventually acquiring the whole thing.

Wayman and Anderson outline each of the four technologies that make up the APP system. Wayman explains that SMT is integrated early in the liquefication process and used to get right-sized particles, which maintain the fiber to make it easier to remove it later on, while exposing more oil for recovery and more starch for ethanol conversion.

FST removes fiber prior to fermentation, directing it into a clean fiber pile for feed. “There’s really no value in having that fiber within fermentation; it’s all unfermentable, so by separating that [up front] we bring multiple benefits to the plant,” Anderson says. These benefits include freeing up more space in fermentation, creating a less viscous process stream—which goes through pumps—and increasing capacity in the beer column. Wayman adds, “I think the innovative [aspect of] ICM’s process is that … to create the clean fiber, we’re not carrying anything through that should be going through fermentation. We’re extracting it, removing it through our process, washing that fiber and then pressing that fiber to produce a clean fiber pile.”

FOT and TS4 use density separation to further purify process streams. The finest solids are separated from the thin stillage and directed to the dryer. The cake itself contains the high-value concentrated protein and yeast protein. “The protein stream [from] FOT, and the protein and yeast [stream from] TS4, combine back together to create Protomax,” Anderson says.

The FOT separates crude protein from the process stream while maximizing oil production. Anderson elaborates, 32 | ETHANOL PRODUCER MAGAZINE | MAY 2022

“FOT and TS4, they do their separations to produce the clean process streams of concentrated protein, concentrated protein with yeast, and then the solubles again are [added] post evaporation.” The FOT scroll allows them to remove water mechanically and drive the solids percentage up to 42 percent. The FOT technology also assists in oil recovery [by] purifying the protein— not allowing any oil to be lost with, typically, crude protein, according to Wayman.

The TS4 system uses a centrifuge to extract high protein, yeast-enriched particles. “TS4 allows the dryers and the evaporators to do what they do better,” Anderson explains. “It takes the solids and sends them to the dryers, where the dryers are very good at drying water out of solids, and it takes the solids away from the evaporator so the evaporators can evaporate water out of a liquid.”

The APP system utilizes the ICM rotary drum dryer to dry high-protein feed products, Anderson explains. “There’s upwards of around 400 ICM rotary dryers in the industry, and for those plants that already have our dryer system, there’s a very high likelihood that they will be able to put the APP system in, produce a high protein Protomax feed product and dry it with their existing dryers—no new dryer needed,” Anderson says, explaining how the APP system runs a high solid, low water feed to the dryer, which allows the dryer to run with “minimal natural gas and minimal temperature.” The dryer also has superb temperature control capability to dry “high value feed” products optimally, Anderson explains.

Durler explains the operational benefits of the dryer, “The beauty of being able to maintain your rotary dryer like the rest of our system is operational ease relative to other protein separation systems,” he says.

“The resiliency and ease of operation for the dryer has long been the industry standard, and the [small] amount of additional manpower it takes to run our system, we believe, is also best in class.”

As of early March, the Element facility in Colwich, Kansas, is currently running APP with three other plants in the process of getting the system up and running, according to Anderson.

Market Opportunities Increased protein content opens up a lot of new markets for ethanol plant feed coproducts, Durler explains. In the past, these products would only go to the beef and dairy market, which have value ceilings.

High protein feed allows producers to reach a wider variety of markets.

“Because of the improved amino acid profile, palatability and digestibility, access to pets and aquaculture give us a tremendous amount of upside in markets we’re otherwise not able to access,” Durler says.

“By pulling the fiber away, we also have an increased presence in pork and poultry that have an aversion to fiber as monogastrics don’t have the same utility as a ruminant would.”

Although high protein feed is the primary benefit of the APP package, it also opens up the possibilities for other feeds such as Solbran made from the clean fiber and soluble piles mixed together. Similar to DDGS, this feed is designed for the beef and dairy market, but with a higher value.

It can be produced alongside Protomax for maximum high value feed production.

The APP system’s ability to create clean piles allows for plants to tailor their products to fit their end users’ needs. “It gives the customer an opportunity to start designing feeds for their target markets,” Wayman says. “That gives them flexibility.

When they can take those piles and blend them as needed to meet the highest value opportunities in the market, locally, regionally or internationally.

Efficiencies and CI Score Improvements While the principal goal of APP installation is to produce Protomax high-protein feed, ICM’s technology also brings added efficiencies to an ethanol plant. “With that fiber being removed from fermenta-

tion, you’ll start seeing better heat transfer through exchangers, you’ll see more room inside your fermenters, you’ll see debottlenecking inside your beer column,” Wayman explains.

The added efficiency from the APP system also yields carbon intensity benefits.

The higher percentage of solids going to the dryers can save energy due to the fact that the dryers do not need to run as long, Wayman explains. “To paint a picture operationally, if that amount of water doesn’t have to be dried out at the dryers, that equates to a reduction in natural gas, which is an expensive operational cost for plants and also affects their carbon score,” he says.

The other factor which impacts CI score is the heat transfer which happens CUSTOMIZED FOR COPRODUCTS: During the FOT process, crude protein is efficiently separated from the process stream in uniquely designed decanters with new scrolls that optimize solids cake output and oil recovery.

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Coproducts when fiber goes through the fermentation process. “For a standard Corn Belt plant that’s drying 100 percent of their feed, we could see the possibility to lower their CI score two to four points,” Anderson says.

Ultimately, while designed to create high protein feed, the APP system brings much more to the table by giving producers the flexibility to make coproducts that fit their market. “Our focus is on Protomax, Solbran or the combined distillers pile, but because of the five independent streams and independent clean piles, we are giving ethanol plants the opportunity to recombine those to best leverage their competitive advantage based on what their end users need,” Durler says. “So really, there’s a hundred combinations of how you might do that. We’re giving the plant the flexibility to work with the end user to optimize the utilization of these streams in any combination that adds value.”

Author: Katie Schroeder Contact: katie.schroeder@bbiinternational.com

SUPERIOR SEPARATION: With its patented round hole screens, as opposed to standard slotted screens, ICM's exclusive MZSA centrifuge more efficiently separates coarse solids from fine solids and liquids during the SMT process.

PHOTO: ICM

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Energy

RECOVERING TO REDUCE

Today’s ethanol producers are looking for ways to maximize their efficiency, cut costs and reduce their CI score. A Florida-based technology provider has found a way to help plants do all three by utilizing waste heat from DDGS dryer exhaust.

By Melissa Anderson

Superior efficiency is the hallmark of low-cost ethanol production. The industry’s top plants

consistently achieve greater-than-average margins because they spend less and get more from each bushel of corn processed.

Now, mounting incentives for carbon intensity (CI) reduction are boosting the efficiency motive for biofuel producers. And while lowering CI is more about energy reduction than cost cutting, Bioleap’s innovative Dryer Exhaust Energy Recovery (DEER) system helps producers do both, and more.

“The DEER system reduces ethanol plant energy use by over 20% and recovers [process] water, which reduces the plant’s need for freshwater,” says Wayne Mitchell, Bioleap CEO and founder. “There are no other shovel-ready technologies like this out there that provide this magnitude of carbon reduction.”

Mitchell says the idea for DEER came from ethanol plant energy audits, which

identified the dryer system as a large user of energy where heat had not been recovered and integrated into plants. Half a dozen ethanol plants have already installed the DEER technology, drawn to its ability to meaningfully reduce their carbon intensity at an attractive ROI. “While the quality of the energy available from ethanol plant dryers is relatively low grade, the DEER system was designed to recover and upgrade that energy into a form that is usable [and can] be recycled back into the plant’s evaporator system,” Mitchell says.

Each DEER system installation, which comes with process guarantees, starts with a high-tech facility assessment. The system’s physical integration begins with a 3D laser scan of all areas of the facility where DEER-related components will be installed.

The 3D laser scan is extremely accurate in representing the existing facility, making the design and installation easier and substantially reducing the chances of unforeseen

circumstances in the field. Taking approximately nine months from contract signing to system operability, DEER is designed to be a “valve in/valve out,” addition to an ethanol plant, allowing producers to bypass the system if necessary. That, however, has not yet been necessary.

“To date, once DEER is put into operation, no plant has opted to, or needed to, bypass it,” Mitchell says. “Tie-ins for DEER can be made during normal plant maintenance shutdowns, so there are no disruptions to the plant’s normal operations to install [the system].”

Thus far, DEER has been installed at (and in continuous operation at) seven locations across the Midwest, with two additional DEER projects currently under design/construction with start dates in 2022.

The oldest DEER system has been in operation for five years, operating since May 2017 at Siouxland Ethanol LLC in Jackson, Nebraska.

VESSELS OF EFFICIENCY: Bioleap's Dryer Exhaust Energy Recovery system, or DEER, has been installed at seven facilities, with two additional projects expected to be commissioned in 2022. In 2017, the system was installed at Siouxland Ethanol LLC and, in 2021, Elite Octane LLC. PHOTO: ICM

ETHANOLPRODUCER.COM | 39

Energy

Siouxland Ethanol first learned of Bioleap’s DEER system at the 2016 International Fuel Ethanol Workshop & Expo.

Nick Bowdish, president and CEO of both Siouxland Ethanol and Elite Octane LLC, located in Atlantic, Iowa, was in attendance.

There, on the trade show floor, he spotted a sign signaling an opportunity to cut a plant’s natural gas consumption per gallon significantly.

“The Fuel Ethanol Workshop in 2016 was a key milestone in Siouxland Ethanol’s pursuit of lowering the carbon intensity of ethanol production,” Bowdish says. “Less than a year later, Siouxland Ethanol was the first corn ethanol plant in the United States to install and commission the DEER system. Nearly five years later, we are still as pleased with the system as the day we purchased it.

Bowdish continues, “The Bioleap DEER system is a good fit for any corn ethanol plant that produces DDGS, desires to lower its carbon intensity and is striving to be a low-cost producer.”

A prominent ancillary benefit of the DEER system, according to Bowdish, is that, for ethanol plants set-up with a

'The DEER system came online at the end of 2021 and is meeting our expectations.

The financial return has only improved since the time of making the decision, as natural gas prices have increased.'

Nick Bowdish President and CEO Elite Octane LLC/Siouxland Ethanol LLC

package boiler and regenerative thermal oxidizer (RTO)—rather than a thermal oxidizer/heat-recovery steam generator (TO/ HRSG)—the Bioleap technology acts like a wet scrubber in front of the RTO. The system helped Siouxland maintain peak production with an undersized RTO by removing carryover particulate that found a way past the DDGS dryer cyclones.

“Elite Octane commenced production in July 2018. After maximizing throughput of this facility with an additional fermenter, Bioleap’s technology was the first capital expenditure we made,” Bowdish says. “The DEER system came online at the end of 2021 and is meeting our expectations. The

financial return has only improved since the time of making the decision, as natural gas prices have increased.”

Since its creation, the DEER has been upsized by more than 30% to allow for additional energy recovery, Mitchell explains.

While the original DEER design was aimed at recovering energy into the ethanol plant evaporator system, several additional modules that work in conjunction with DEER have allowed it to recover more energy, which can be used in other areas of the plant: distillation, cook, slurry and liquefaction.

“After the advent of new add-on modules, such as our AHR-Side Stripper module

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SOURCE: BIOLEAP

and our SHARK (Slurry Heating and Reduced backset) module, several plants with existing DEER systems have purchased addon modules and further increased their energy efficiency by 5 to 10%,” Mitchell says.

Bioleap characterizes the savings to an ethanol plant on a BTU-per-gallon level, which translates easily into cost savings based on natural gas expenditure before and after installation. On average, ethanol plants are saving 6,290 BTU per gallon of ethanol produced—and some are saving as much as 8,500. For plants that can monetize carbon reduction, the DEER system typically reduces the CI score of their fuel by three to four points, if not more. Also, with the reduction in freshwater requirements, water use savings can be found, depending on the plant’s water source and quality requirements. The latter two potential savings vary widely from plant to plant.

Ethanol plants that have installed the DEER system have reported experiencing minimal to no additional operating and maintenance costs. Mitchell says the only moving parts in the DEER system are pumps for moving water, which have been highly reliable. The net electrical impact of

DEER is neutral to a slight savings post installation.

The DEER system itself does not have any seasonal variations in performance. The primary variable affecting the system’s recovery rates is the amount of energy available in the dryer exhaust, and there are some seasonal variations in the plant’s ability to utilize recovered energy from the system. “More energy is needed in the winter months as the raw materials are entering the plant at much colder temperatures,” Mitchell says. “This allows the DEER to supply additional recovered energy to offset the cold.”

Today, more than ever, ethanol plants across the United States are looking for ways to maximize their efficiency to cut costs, reduce CI and enhance revenue. Mitchell believes the best way to do all three is through reduction of energy usage, which also moves the industry toward a more sustainable future. With technologies like the DEER system, the industry is a step closer to getting there.

Author: Melissa Anderson Contact: editor@bbiinternational.com

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