Engineering evaluation of small-scale ethanol plant designs. [10 to 50 gallons per hour]
The goals of this project were to provide engineering process design information for farm-scale ethanol-fermentation plants having ethanol capacities of 10 gph (gal/hr) 30 gph and 50 gph. We were specifically interested in providing design information for the various plant components/equipment which could be used by the farmer to either construct himself or to request a bid from an equipment supplier. Sizes of the major pieces of equipment to accomplish each processing step were thus specified rather than mechanical specifications, because several mechanical designs are usually available to satisfy the processing need. Each mechanical design is a trade-off of cost, efficiency, flexibility, and capacity, with no one design being the optimum with respect to each criteria. The design information provided in this report provides the farmer with the process requirements which serve as a basis for evaluating the various equipment options available. The report is divided into six sections. The first four are directly related to the processing steps involved in fermentation of grain to ethanol: fermentation, distillation, dehydration, utilities and byproducts. Corn was the fermentable grain which was the basis for all our process calculations. The fifth section deals briefly with the costs of farm-scale plants, while the last section summarizes the information obtained in our evaluation of commercially available plants with capacities of 10 to 50 gph ethanol product. 15 references, 13 figures, 20 tables.
- Research Organization:
- Oklahoma Univ., Norman (USA). School of Chemical Engineering and Materials Science
- DOE Contract Number:
- FG46-80R612043
- OSTI ID:
- 5533366
- Report Number(s):
- DOE/R6/12043-T1; ON: DE84002999
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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ADSORBENTS
ALCOHOLS
BIOCONVERSION
BY-PRODUCTS
CEREALS
COMPARATIVE EVALUATIONS
DATA
DESIGN
DISTILLATION
EQUIPMENT
ETHANOL
ETHANOL PLANTS
EXPERIMENTAL DATA
FARMS
FERMENTATION
GRAMINEAE
GRASS
HEAT EXCHANGERS
HYDROXY COMPOUNDS
INDUSTRIAL PLANTS
INFORMATION
MAIZE
MOLECULAR SIEVES
NUMERICAL DATA
ORGANIC COMPOUNDS
PLANTS
PRODUCTION
REMOVAL
SEPARATION PROCESSES
WATER REMOVAL