Alcohol Plants

Cutting edge technology for alcohol production plants.

Technology for Alcohol Production

Alcohol, also referred to as ethanol or ethyl alcohol, is a valuable base material for varied industries and is used as a solvent for many substances. Besides alcoholic beverages, it has applications in chemicals, pharmaceuticals and cosmetics, and is also used as a transport fuel additive.

On this page you can find out how ethanol is produced and how Vogelbusch can contribute to setting up an alcohol plant.

How is alcohol made?

By fermentation using yeast, alcohol is obtained from various agricultural materials that contain sugar, starch or cellulose. In additional process steps it is refined and concentrated to obtain the highest and purest possible quality.

Alcohol know-how and technology

Vogelbusch has introduced many ground-breaking improvements in alcohol plant design and offers first class, worldwide proven technology for every stage of alcohol production: from raw material preparation and fermentation through to subsequent separation by distillation, rectification and dehydration as well as by-product treatment and auxiliary installations.

We design complete greenfield installations and are also available to upgrade or revamp your existing plant to increase capacity, improve yield and/or product quality and save energy and water.

Your benefits at a glance
  • Highly specialized custom solutions
  • Expert for system integration of production units
  • Cost-effective, energy saving features throughout the plant
  • Surplus energy adds to power export generated from CHP
  • Experienced process provider for EPC project execution
Product types

Depending on the end use, ethanol quality grades differ in purity and concentration

Organoleptic and purity demands

Neutral alcohol needs to comply with most comprehensive analytical requirements of national standards, pharmacopeia or producer specifications ...

Neutral Alcohol Plants
Practically free of water

Bioethanol - also called fuel ethanol - requires an ethanol concentration of up to 99.5 % and in many countries is subject to regulations for sustainable production ...

Bioethanol Plants

Ethanol production facilities designed by Vogelbusch

Neutral Alcohol Plant in Ahwaz
RAZI YEAST & ALCOHOL COMPANY - Ahwaz, Iran

The plant now operated by Razi (formerly Sugar Cane By-Products Corporation) was designed for a daily capacity of 110,000 liters of high quality pharmaceutical alcohol from cane molasses complying with EU standards. A special challenge was designing the plant for the extreme climatic conditions (0°C to 50°C) and the highest...

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...

Bioethanol plant in Zeitz
CROPENERGIES - Zeitz, Germany

The 800,000 liters per day plant of CropEnergies,  a unit of German Südzucker group, is designed for multiple grain sources together with by-products of beet sugar processing. The plant and is highly advanced in terms of energy saving and environmental protection. Vogelbusch contributed process design for the raw material processing,...

Bioethanol Plant in Madison
GREEN PLAINS (Abengoa) - Madison, Illinois, USA

Abengoa Bioenergy reached sustained capacity at their 88 million gallons per year (950,000 liters per day), state-of-the-art fuel ethanol facility located in Madison, Illinois in February 2010. This is the third Abengoa Bioenergy plant in the U.S. that utilizes technology licensed by VOGELBUSCH USA Inc., including the Vogelbusch MultiCont© continuous fermentation...

Neutral Alcohol Distillation in Lidköping
LANTMÄNNEN REPPE - Lidköping, Sweden

Renowned starch manufacturer Lantmännen Reppe is one of the largest Swedish alcohol distillers too. The MultiPressure distillation unit in Lidköping, commissioned in 2010, can produce some 50,000 liters of high quality alcohol that add to the company's beverage alcohol supply. The alcohol production is based on wheat starch. The distillation was...

Extra Neutral Alcohol D|R in Leopoldov
SLOVENSKE LIEHOVARY À LIKÉRKY - Leopoldov, Slovakia

The plant in Leopoldov produces extra neutral alcohol for the company's well established range of beverage brands. 30,000 liters of high quality alcohol are distilled per day from alcoholic mashes from molasses and grain. Vogelbusch designed the distillation and rectification unit and supplied key equipment for the plant, which was commissioned in...

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,...

Neutral Alcohol Plant in Verinsko
ALMAGEST - Verinsko, Ihtiman, Bulgaria

Almagest opted for Vogelbusch in 2009 to produce top quality extra neutral alcohol with the highest purity and organoleptic demands, to be used in the production of alcoholic beverages. The excellent alcohol quality convinced Almagest to commission Vogelbusch again in 2011 to expand the plant capacity to 80,000 liters per...

GNS plant in Liberal
ARKALON CONESTOGA - Liberal, Kansas, USA

This is another facility that integrates a VOGELBUSCH Annex Distillery into an existing ethanol plant to produce high quality alcohols. It has a production capacity of 270,000 liter per day (25 million gallons per year) of Grain Neutral Spirits (GNS) that takes a stream of 190 proof ethanol from the...

Alcohol Plant in Alejandro Roca
PROMAÍZ - Alejandro Roca, Cordoba, Argentina

The Promaíz plant produces bioethanol from corn which is used as fuel additive in the local markets. Besides the technology package for the complete plant and detailed planning of piping and vessels, Vogelbusch has been assigned with the supply of equipment such as fermenter internals, distillation columns, molecular sieve dehydration and...

Services

We license our alcohol technology and provide engineering services from initial process design through to the start-up of the plant:

Relevant processes

From the feedstock to the final product we offer all process steps for the production of alcohol: 

Project Development

ProductIdea1
How to turn your idea into a modern industrial bioprocessing facility

Find some guidance for the development of a manufacturing plant illustrating the steps to be taken from the initial product idea to the operational facility

MINDMAP Project Development
Services offered by Vogelbusch are marked with orange bars.

Questions? Check out our FAQs on the product pages

FAQ Neutral Alcohol Plant

FAQ Bioethanol Plant

Complete our design questionnaire to enable us to give a professional opinion on your project 

QUESTIONNAIRE Neutral Alcohol Plant

QUESTIONNAIRE Bioethanol Plant

Calculation of  bioethanol greenhouse gas emissions in Europe

BIOGRACE is a GHG calculation tool for biofuels in compliance with the emission saving requirments of the European Union

More information on bioethanol

Ethanol Facts - Production, use, sustainability and importance of ethanol as a renewable fuel - provided by ePURE

 

What our clients say...

"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."

Tom Malkoski, Penford Products, Bioethanol Plant, Cedar Rapids, Iowa, United States

News

5 logo alcohol school

The Alcohol School
2023.03.06

April 16 - 21, 2023 | Vienna, Austria

Contact us

VOGELBUSCH Biocommodities GmbH

Blechturmgasse 11
1051 Vienna, Austria

Tel +43 1 54 661-0
Fax +43 1 545 29 79
vienna@vogelbusch.com

VOGELBUSCH USA Inc.

1826 Snake River Road, Suite C
Katy, TX 77449, USA

Tel +1 713 461 7374
Fax +1 713 461 7377
houston@vogelbusch.com
www.vbusa.com

VOGELBUSCH Hong Kong Ltd.

Flat A, 6/F, Beauty Mansion,
69-71 Kimberley Road
Tsimshatsui, Kowloon
Hong Kong, PR China
Tel +852 2314 3030
Fax +852 2314 0369
hongkong@vogelbusch.com