Modular Concepts

Easy to install, pre-assembled systems.

Modular, skid-mounted systems

For simple installation and reduction of field erection time and costs, Vogelbusch can supply pre-assembled packages that are custom-engineered to client specification. 

Our versatile skid-mounted designs are compact, easy to install, and require minimum field connections.

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Custom-built distillation and dehydration systems

Depending on plant capacity, the systems are supplied either skid-mounted or in pre-assembled modules that are piped, wired, and fully tested before shipment.

On site, the components are reassembled and erected. After connections to the client’s utilities (steam, electrical, cooling water, instrument air, etc.) are complete, the system is commissioned.

Complete process unit in modules

Each modular system is designed as a complete process unit and is pre-fabricated to the maximum extent possible so that the time and cost to the customer for field installation is minimized. 

The typical modular system will include all needed process equipment such as columns, vessels, heat exchangers, pumps as well as field instruments and automation system, all mounted (where practical) within structural steel framing.

This structural steel framing serves as a shipping support and is laid out to provide access to the equipment both during normal operation and for maintenance. 

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Capacities

Our skid-mounted units can be supplied to handle feeds starting from a few liters per minute. The units are designed on the basis of standard industrial components and are a perfect solution for pilot and demonstration plants, for instance for ethanol recovery from proprietary second generation processes. 

Module designs are the choice for

  • Distillation and/or rectification plants with capacities up to 100,000 liters per day
  • Dehydration plants with capacities up to 400,000 liters per day

Showcase projects for modular supply packages

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Ethanol dehydration in Sarpsborg
BORREGAARD - Sarpsborg, Norway

Borregaard replaced a decades old ethanol dehydration system by a state-of-the-art molecular sieve unit from Vogelbusch. The limited space in the biorefinery recommended a skid construction with minimum footprint. A special feature of the installation is an unusually wide capacity span, which was realized in a fully automated process. The unit has...

Cepsa2015
Dehydration Unit for Gibraltar
CEPSA - San Roque, Gibraltar

CEPSA (Compañía Española de Petróleos, S.A.U.) ordered a molecular sieve dehydration unit from Vogelbusch to purify ethanol which subsequently is to be processed to ETBE. The 12,000 liters per day unit has been prefabricated and skid-mounted in Austria and transferred to Gibraltar by truck to be integrated in the San Roque...

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D|D Ethanol recovery system in California
ALLTECH - Ontario, California, USA

VOGELBUSCH USA Inc. supplied a system for recovery of ethanol from brewery waste streams. The facility was designed as a PLC-controlled, two-stage process that consists of a two-column distillation, which produces an ethanol/water vapour that is then dried in the molecular sieve unit.  For easy installation, the system was prefabricated in two...

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D|D for Cellulosic Ethanol Plant in Hugoton
SYNATA BIO (Abengoa) - Hugoton, Kansas, USA

The commercial-scale, cellulosic ethanol facility in Hugoton utilizes Abengoa’s own enzymatic hydrolysis technology to produce 25 million gallons of ethanol and 21 megawatts of electricity from 300,000 tons of biomass per year. Implemented in 2014, VOGELBUSCH USA Inc. provided process design for the distillation and molecular sieve dehydration areas and also...

4 ineos
D|D for Demonstration Plant in Vero Beach
FRANKENS ENERGY (Ineos Bio) - Vero Beach, Florida, USA

VOGELBUSCH USA Inc. supplied the ethanol distillation and dehydration equipment for the 2G (second generation) demonstration plant of Ineos Bio’s , a first-of-its-kind waste-to-bioenergy facility near Vero Beach, Florida. The project uses a feedstock-flexible biomass conversion technology. It's unique combination of gasification and fermentation technologies turns different types of waste materials,...

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D|R Pilot Plant in Tennamaram
SIME DARBY | MITSUI ENGINEERING - Tennamaram, Malaysia

Local palm oil producer Sime Darby together with the Japanese company Mitsui Engineering & Shipbuilding Co. Ltd. (MES) installed a pilot plant for second generation (2G) bioethanol in Tennamaram, Malaysia. Based on technology licensed from the Danish company Inbicon the plant produces bioethanol from empty fruit bunches that are left...

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Dehydration Unit in Pointe-a-Pierre
ETHYLCHEM - Pointe-a-Pierre, Trinidad, West Indies

Hydrous ethanol imported from Brazil is the feedstock for a molecular sieve dehydration facility set up by EthylChem at the Pointe-a-Pierre refinery in Trinidad. It has a production capacity of 1,082,000 liters per day (100 MMGY) of fuel ethanol with a purity of over 99.9 per cent that is intended...

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Ethanol dehydration in Osaka
COSMO OIL - Sakai-City, Osaka, Japan

Cosmo Oil produces 140,000 liters per day (12 MMGPY) of low moisture ethanol (300 ppm) utilizing process design by VOGELBUSCH USA Inc.. The skid-mounted unit was installed as part of a larger project to retrofit an existing MTBE production facility at their Sakai Refinery for ETBE production.

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2G Demonstration Plant in Kalundborg
ØRSTED (Inbicon) - Kalundborg, Denmark

Inbicon has developed a proprietary process for the conversion of wheat straw. Complementing this biomass conversion process Inbicon has opted for sound and energy efficient technology from Vogelbusch for part of ethanol fermentation as well as the distillation, dehydration and stillage evaporation. The 17,000 liters per day demonstration plant served as...

4 GreenP2007
Ethanol Dehydration in North Sitra
GREEN POWER - North Sitra, Kingdom of Bahrain

Some 400,000 liters per day of crude industrial alcohol from a refinery in Saudi Arabia are processed in the Bahrain unit. After entering the plant, the feed is purified in a rectification column where low-boiling substances such as diethylether and acetaldehyde are separated before being dehydrated by molecular sieve technology...

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Alcohol Dehydration Unit in Alfatar
EURO ETHYL - Alfatar, Bulgaria

Euro Ethyl’s molecular sieve system was supplied preassembled by VOGELBUSCH USA Inc. and the performance test was successfully completed in November 2006. The plant has a rated capacity of 120,000 liters of dehydrated alcohol per day. The integration of the molecular sieve with the existing plant required additional distillation equipment to...

News

Skid-mounted system for recovery of ethanol
2017.06.01

Report on ethanol drying system published in Biofuels International Magazine May/June 2017.