Ethanol plants achieve the best quality ethanol proteins through advanced process monitoring and control. That means starting with consistent control of corn grinding, cook and liquefaction and fermentation so that each fermentation batch is very consistent in terms of starch converted to ethanol. Most ethanol plants were designed with simple DCS process control and simple process data historians. While that worked well for producing ethanol, it resulted in DDGS variability in pro-fat composition due to the variation in residual starch. When generating income from higher value protein products becomes a target, this kind of process control is not optimum. Maintaining high plant reliability, maintaining process equipment like hammer mills and fermentation coolers, and controlling each fermentation batch with the same drop ethanol and residual sugars are critically important to producing a high quality and consistent protein product.
Advanced process monitoring and control is a key to achieving this result. Advanced process monitoring includes building engineering calculations within the process historian for parameters like heat transfer efficiency, solids percent and evaporator fouling. It can also include advanced anomaly detection which enables plants to identify potential equipment failures well before they result in plant outages. Advanced process control includes improved solids control, improved fermentation batch control, improved water balance control and improved protein dryer controls. Consistent and reliable operations will be a key enabler for the new ethanol protein plants to satisfy their customers and deliver reliable returns on their investments.
Large renewable energy and biochemical consulting firms like Lee Enterprises Consulting will certainly have experts in ethanol and advanced process monitoring. They also offer a wide range of services in the general areas of biofuels, biochemicals, biotechnologies, biomaterials, synthetic biology commercialization, feedstocks, and hemp/cannabis, and will have many specialized business and financial services like due diligence, feedstock availability, grants and loans and bio market research. A big consulting group like this should also offer technical and engineering related services like techno economic analysis, environmental evaluations, feasibility studies, risk analysis and expert witness engagements, and have solid strategic partnerships in place to assist clients with insurance, legal, accounting, plant fabrication, feedstock procurement.
With over 150 experts worldwide, Lee Enterprises Consulting has experts in many specific clean and renewable areas, including anaerobic digestion, fermentation, biomass, conversion technologies for things like tires and railroad ties, organic synthesis, fuel additives, ethanol gas, biodiesel fuel including algae biofuels, solid state and industrial fermentation, green energy grants, ag biotech, agricultural waste, alcohol fuels, alternative proteins and animal-free products, sustainable foods, beverage fermentation, biocatalysis, biodiesel conversion, biogas production, biomass power, carbon intensity, co2 utilization, combined heat & power, Fischer-Tropsch technology, food waste, hydrothermal carbonization, industrial enzymes, landfill management, microbial fermentation, organic synthesis, plastic pyrolysis, plastic recycling, plastic waste, pyrolysis oil, reactor design, renewable identification number, the Renewable Fuel Standard (rfs2), solid recovered fuels, torrefaction and torrefied biomass, waste to energy, and waste-to-hydrogen. This is a multidisciplinary group of green energy consultants that is a virtual “one stop shop” for any client need and handles projects of all types and sizes.
Look at our experts and the services we provide. Most of our experts are also available to advise and serve as expert witnesses in bioeconomy litigation matters. For the larger projects, we specialize in putting together full service, interdisciplinary teams with one point of contact. See video about LEC here. Call us at 1+ (501) 833-8511 or email us for more information.
