Selected showcase projects in America

Penford Products Company successfully started up their state-of-the-art fuel ethanol facility in May 2008. The plant utilizes technology licensed by VOGELBUSCH USA and has a nameplate capacity of 450,000 liters per day. Corn hydrolysate from the company’s existing wet corn milling operation is used as feedstock.

Tom Malkoski, Penford’s President and CEO says, “The addition of ethanol will allow our Cedar Rapids plant to increase production and improve asset utilization, while providing us with new flexibility to maximize returns from multiple market opportunities.”

Altra Indiana LLC reached design capacity in June 2008 at its facility in Coverdale, Indiana. The plant was built using know-how provided by VOGELBUSCH USA, including the VOGELBUSCH Multicont continuous fermentation process, and has a nameplate capacity of 908,000 liters per day. The facility will use 32 million bushels (813,000 metric tons) of local corn annually and will produce approximately 250,000 metric tons of distiller’s dried grains with solubles (DDGS).

Abengoa Bioenergy successfully started up their state-of-the-art fuel ethanol facility located in Ravenna, Nebraska, USA in September 2007. The plant utilises technology licensed by Vogelbusch USA, including the Vogelbusch Multicont continuous fermentation process, and has a nameplate capacity of 908,000 lpd. The facility will use 32 million bushels (813,000 metric tons) of local corn annually. In addition to ethanol, it will produce approx. 136,000 metric tons of distiller’s dried grains with solubles (DDGS) and 318,000 metric tons of wet distiller’s grains with solubles (WDGS) — co-products of the corn-to-ethanol dry milling process.

Abengoa Bioenery and Vogelbusch USA have entered into a license agreement for the development of a series of 100 million gallon plants to be designed using the Vogelbusch Multicont process technology.

The Chief Ethanol Fuels facility is utilizing Vogelbusch-licensed technology. In 2007, a third molecular sieve drying system was designed and installed, raising operating capacity to 832,000 l/d.

The cooperation first started in 1983 when Chief Ethanol Fuels set up af 120,000 l/d plant. Vogelbusch process design included continuous fermentation, multi-pressure distillation, and azeotropic dehydration using cyclohexane as an entrainer. The dry milling process was designed to use corn (maize) and/or milo (grain sorghum) as feedstock.  Co-products include DDGS (distillers’ dried grains with solubles) and DWGS (distillers’ wet grains with solubles).

In 1993, Vogelbusch technology was again featured in the expansion of the facility to a capacity of 325,000 l/d. Azeotropic dehydration was replaced with a PSA (pressure-swing adsorption), molecular sieve alcohol dryer that was fed directly with vapor from the rectifying column.  In addition, 190 proof vapor off the top of the rectifying column was routed to the first effect of a two-stage stillage evaporator where it was condensed and returned to the rectifying column as reflux. This heat-saving design resulted in reducing thermal energy consumption by 25%.

Five years later, plant capacity was more than doubled to 670,000 l/d.  In addition to providing technology, Vogelbusch also designed and supplied components for a second molecular sieve alcohol drying system.

Vogelbusch USA Inc started up this bioethanol plant, with a production capacity of 450,000 litres/day of bioethanol from corn, in spring 2006.

The plant also employs a state of the art Vogelbusch continuous fermentation process. An energy integrated distillation, evaporation and dehydration system ensures maximum efficiency.

In March 2004 the molecular sieve unit at the Aventine Renewable Energy plant was brought on stream. With a rated capacity of 1.2 million liters per day (110 mm gallons/year) anhydrous alcohol, at that time the largest capacity molecular sieve alcohol dehydration unit in the world.

The molecular sieve unit replaced the ageing cyclohexane dehydration unit and resulting in significant energy savings, while maintaining additional evaporative capacity of the integrated Vogelbusch distillation/evaporation/dehydration plant.

Over more than 20 years Vogelbusch is associated with the facility of Aventine Renewable Energy in Pekin. In 1981 the original plant using Vogelbusch technology was the first continuous fermentation in the US. In 1993 the plant was expanded and later, step after step, a distillation, a molecular sieve for high quality potable and industrial alcohol and a vacuum distillation for yeast recovery were added.

GreenField Ethanol (formerly Commercial Alcohols) is a Canadian producer of bioethanol, neutral industrial alcohol and dehydrated industrial alcohol from corn.

Vogelbusch USA supplied know-how, license and process engineering for the complete plant and supplied the molecular sieve dehydration unit. The plant capacity is 430,000 liters per day of bioethanol and industrial alcohol.