Measurement Automation Strategy Key to Bio-Ethanol Refinery Efficiency

The conversion of corn into fuel ethanol is once again gaining popularity and is an appealing
business opportunity for farm communities and agribusinesses in the mid-west and other regions
of the U.S. and Canada. Investors are attracted by the prospect of more than doubling the
monetary value of a bushel of corn by converting it into 2.75 gallons of fuel ethanol, 17 pounds
of animal feed, and other value added byproducts.
In the U.S. alone, over 120 plants are now producing ethanol from corn feedstock, and another
76 are under construction. Dozens more are in various stages of planning, with total domestic
production capacity expected to double during the next five years. The Des Moines Register
recently reported that farmers planted more corn in 2007 than in any year since 1944, based on
expectations of increased ethanol production.
The rapid increase in production reflects the expanding market for bio-ethanol, driven by
growing recognition of the economic, social and environmental benefits of biofuels. Ethanol is
increasingly in demand as an octane-enhancing substitute for the additive MBTE, which is being
banned in many states. The 2005 Energy Policy Act stimulated the growth of this industry by
offering federal incentives and goals for replacing a portion of our nation’s gasoline
requirements with a renewable fuel source by 2012. Current estimates indicate we will surpass
these benchmarks well before 2012.
Fourteen billion gallons of ethanol would be required, if an E10 (10%) blend were to replace all
140 billion gallons of gasoline consumed in the U.S. annually. Add to this a strong push from
state legislatures for the market adoption of E85 (85%) blends, and the growing interest in
Canadian and overseas markets, and it is easy to understand the high level of investment in new
production capacity.
Thin Profit Margins
The strong demand, however, represents only one part of the profitability equation. The whole
proposition is not profitable if inefficiencies in the production process itself add significant costs,
as a result of excess energy consumption, poor yields, wasteful use of raw materials, process
chemicals and enzymes. Unfortunately, in many cases, that is exactly what’s happening.
The cost of natural gas and other utilities are especially problematic, as these items far exceed
the other major cost components, including the cost of plant construction and labor. For
example, in a typical plant, the natural gas that fuels boilers, evaporators, dryers and other
equipment comprises 15% of the cost of producing a gallon of ethanol. For a 100MGY plant,
that translates to millions of dollars in operating costs. Conserving energy by just 1% improves
the bottom line by tens of thousands of dollars.
The elevated price of natural gas is not the only financial challenge. When an ethanol production
facility comes online, the increased local demand for corn puts upward price pressure on corn
prices and poses problems with variability of feedstock. Some ethanol producers report that
ethanol yields vary as much as 7 percent, depending on the variety of corn. Lower yields add
considerable financial risk – an anathema to investors.
Need for Tight Process Control
For these reasons, achieving consistent profitability can be a tough challenge for bio-ethanol
producers. An individual ethanol producer has little influence on the market price it receives for
the product it ships and little control over the price of feedstock and natural gas. What ethanol
producers can do – must do – is tightly control their own manufacturing process, and thereby
produce consistently high yield, while minimizing the consumption of energy and raw materials,
such as yeast, enzymes, nutrients, and chemicals.
As any business guru will tell you, process control depends on accurate and reliable
measurement. Process improvement methodologies, such as Lean Manufacturing and Six
Sigma, are fundamentally measurement-based strategies that seek to maximize productivity
while eliminating variation. In fact, measurement is both the second step and the fifth step of the
Six Sigma DMADV process (define, measure, analyze, design, verify). However implementing
process control strategies requires a careful understanding of process needs, including identifying
measurement challenges and applying an optimal, customized solution that takes advantage of
the best available technology.
Importance of Meter Selection and Placement
Careful selection and installation of measurement devices is important for three reasons:
Measurement Accuracy. First and foremost, measurement devices give visibility to the process,
allowing plant operators to “see” what is going on inside the pipes and production systems and
how full each tank is. This is actionable information that provides the basis for planning and
management systems and for real-time process control. To be useful, this information must be
accurate.
Automation. Accurate and reliable measurement devices enable automation by programmable
logic controllers and computer systems. Automation improves plant efficiency and production
consistency. Measurement devices should have self-diagnostics and alarming capabilities to
automatically monitor conditions on a continual basis and to alert operators of problem states
such as changes in flow caused by solids, entrained gas, or temperature changes, as well as
problems with the functioning of the measurement device itself.
Maintenance Costs. High performance measurement devices may have a higher initial purchase
cost, but they will typically have lower total lifetime costs, because of the elimination of
downtime for recalibration and repair. Some manufacturers now offer interchangeable
components, such as a universal signal converter that is compatible with a variety of meters with
different sensor technologies or different pipe diameters and flow rates. This flexibility greatly
simplifies engineering, procurement, and parts inventory.

Measurement Devices
Measurement devices serve several purposes in an ethanol plant.
Flowmeters measure the speed and volume (or, in some cases, the mass) of liquids and gases
that move through a pipe, including beer, stillage, syrup, enzymes, water, steam, CO 2 and natural
gas, as well as methane used as an alternate fuel. A wide variety of flowmetering technology is
available, including Coriolis, magnetic, ultrasonic, variable area, and vortex-based devices.
Density meters measure the percent solids during feed stock preparation. Density meters also
measure the final alcohol quality (proof) to monitor and control energy intensive processes and
to satisfy ASTM documentation requirements for selling final products into the transport fuel
distribution system.
Level meters indicate the volume of solids or fluids in a tank, for process control and inventory
management. Mechanical devices that utilize hydrostatic pressure are fast being replaced by
more accurate and reliable direct level measuring technologies such as guided wave radars and
non-contact methods that employ radar and ultrasonic waves.
At various points in the production process, it is also necessary to measure and control
temperature -- during cooking, fermentation and distillation, for example – as well as other
attributes such as pressure, pH, conductivity, and moisture.
Achieving High Performance
Every stage of production demands precision, and a plant’s measuring device supplier must have
a deep understanding of the entire ethanol production process, as well as the best technology
available and suitable for each type of measurement required.
Performance is not just a question of selecting the best technology and device for the particular
application. Proper placement of the device in the pipeline or tank is also critically important to
ensure not only accurate measurement but also to avoid distortions, clogging and damage.
Achieving good performance and controlling total lifecycle costs also depends on a preventive
maintenance and periodic calibration checks on some instruments.
The Production Process
This white paper provides examples of how accurate measurement improves efficiencies and
contributes to profitability in a typical dry milling process during the five main parts of the
production process: conversion, fermentation, distillation, dehydration, and recovery of
byproducts (e.g., CO 2 , and DDGS).
Conversion, the first step of the dry milling process, converts the starch in the feedstock to
simple sugars in preparation for the subsequent fermentation process. Such conversion is not
necessary for sugarcane and other sugar-rich feedstock sources, because they do not contain
starches that need to be converted into fermentable sugars.
Corn feedstock is processed using enzymatic conversion. The feedstock is ground into fine
particles and mixed with water to prepare corn mash, a consistent slurry. The grinding process
increases surface area and frees the starches from inside the protective cell walls. Alpha amylase
enzymes are typically used for the liquefaction of the starch-rich grain. A second enzyme,
glucoamylase, is commonly used to convert the liquefied starch into glucose (simple sugar) in a
process called saccharification.
Cellulosic feedstock requires more complex hydrolysis conversion to break down the closely-
bonded cellulose and hemicellulose from the lignin and release the fermentable sugars.
Once the feed stock has been converted to fermentable sugar, the downstream steps of the dry
milling process – fermentation, distillation and dehydration – do not tend to vary by type of
feedstock.
Fermentation employs yeast to convert the glucose into ethanol. Fermentation can be done in
batches or continuously when combined with saccharification. Depending on yeast strain,
fermentation can take one to five days. Yeast dosage is dependant on the sugar content and the
desired percent of alcohol at the end of the fermentation process. Fermentation severely slows
after reaching 14% alcohol, because alcohol denatures the process. However, some types of
yeast can ferment up to 21%. Tightly controlling temperature is critical to maximizing
efficiency, because fermentation will usually cease above 85°F.
The fermentation process produces “beer” containing diluted alcohol and solids. Two
downstream processes, distillation and dehydration, extract the liquid and purify it in steps to
achieve 100% alcohol content (200 proof) as required for E100 fuel ethanol specification.
Carbon dioxide (CO 2 ), a second co-product of the ethanol production process, is given off in
large quantities during fermentation. As a gas, CO 2 is colorless, odorless, and incombustible. In
its liquid form, CO 2 reaches an extreme -17°F, which makes it an excellent source for cooling
and freezing applications. CO 2 vapors released from fermentation are usually scrubbed to
recover any alcohol vapors and cleaned. If sold to commercial users, the CO 2 is liquefied.
Otherwise, it is typically released back into atmosphere.
Distillation is the process by which alcohol is separated from the mash and water. It exploits the
difference in boiling points between alcohol and water. Distillation can only purify the ethanol
to about 94% alcohol (6% water), because water and alcohol form an azeotrope at atmospheric
pressure.
Dehydration A molecular sieve is the simplest method and most common method of purifying
ethanol from 190 to 200 proof.
Evaporation and Drying The solids waste at the bottom of (a?) beer well is processed
separately in a centrifuge/evaporation/drying process to produce distillers dried grains with
solubles (DDGS). Distillers grains are rich in cereal proteins, fat, minerals, and vitamins, and
they serve as an excellent source of digestible protein and energy.
Each area of the plant described briefly above – milling, slurry preparation, liquefaction,
fermentation, distillation, dehydration, evaporation and drying — requires a measurement
solution that provides an optimal relationship between performance and purchase price. This
performance includes not only accuracy, but also reliability and durability, as well as frequency
and method of calibration, and lifetime maintenance costs.
Optimizing Solids Measurement
Most production operators understand the importance of
percent solids control for an effective fermentation process,
and measurements are routinely conducted at various points
in the process. Unfortunately, most percent solids
measurements are performed only periodically, by a
laboratory moisture analyzer. Although the lab analyzer
may be calibrated for high accuracies, this sampling and testing process usually proves unreliable
in practice, and is extremely difficult to get repeatable results.
As a result, an increasing number of plant operators are opting for real-time, online measurement
to continuously monitor the contents of the mixing tank and make instantaneous changes to the
process. Plants are thereby able to maintain process requirements within acceptable tolerances
(typically within 0.5%). This real time measurement and control allows more consistency in the
slurry mix solids and enables operators to push the solids percentage higher, thereby reducing
flow problems and enzyme usage and
other costs. Continuous monitoring of
solids concentration facilitates the
detection and prompt correction of any
slow decrease in solids.
By continually measuring percent
solids, a record is established for each
fermentation batch. The data
facilitates realistic prediction of the
outcome of the fermentation process,
in order to optimize the overall process
by reducing problems with previous
known flow issues. The solids data
can also be used to improve the beer
well averages, a key factor in
increasing alcohol yields.
The newest generation of industrial grade Coriolis meters has proven to provide highly accurate
and repeatable density measurements, as the basis of good solids measurement. Unfortunately,
the “bent” design and internal flow splitters in previous generations of Coriolis meters frequently
failed due to fouling and blockages. These problems have been eliminated by the single, straight
tube OPTIMASS 7000 series coriolis meters developed by KROHNE, Inc. The single, straight
tube design provides an affordable, accurate and highly reliable solids measurement solution.
Optimizing Ethanol Rectification and Dehydration
Rectification and dehydration provide a textbook case of the importance of accurate
measurement for effective process control.
The rectification and dehydration are common to any fuel ethanol process, whether wet milling,
dry grind or cellulosic. The goal of the rectification process is to achieve maximum purification
(up to 190 proof). Then the dehydration process employs molecular sieves to convert the 190
proof ethanol into 200 proof ethanol, going from 5% moisture content to 0%.
If the process fluid moves too quickly through the molecular sieves and some moisture remains,
then the entire batch must be run back through the dehydration system again – a completely
inefficient step that wastes energy and ties up production capacity and potentially causes a
bottleneck for the entire plant. To avoid this problem, a plant could extend the dwell time in the
molecular sieves to ensure that all moisture is removed. However, this margin of comfort comes
at a cost in terms of productivity loss and unnecessary energy consumption.
Alcohol proof measurement of rectifier output (190 proof) and dehydration output (200 proof)
can dramatically improve process efficiency. Precise density measurements, detects exactly
when the ethanol reaches the anhydrous threshold (zero moisture content), so that the
dehydration process can meet its target without overreaching, thereby obviating the need for any
wasteful comfort margin.
As with the percent-solids measurement application discussed above, the new generation of
Coriolis meters with single, straight tube design, has proven to be a highly accurate and reliable
solution for real-time monitoring of alcohol proof during the rectification and dehydration
processes. The continuous trends data allows for instantaneous correction of process upsets and
ensures the consistent and tight control of proof values in final product. This process control is
critical to meeting quality control specifications and to increasing throughput and profitability.
An important advantage of the state-of-the-art Coriolis meters, such as the KROHNE 7000
Series T80 OPTIMASS meter, is the ability to measure multiple parameters in a single device –
proof, density, temperature and flow. Previously, plant operators needed to purchase, install,
calibrate and maintain several separate devices to perform all these functions: typically one
meter would measure density and proof on a slipstream, and additional instruments would be
installed in the main line to measure temperature and flow.
More Efficient Dryer Operation
Single straight tube Coriolis meters, with multiple-parameter capability, also provide high pay
backs when installed on the evaporator syrup draw. Installations of an online flow/density meter
at the intermediate and final stages of the evaporator process have successfully demonstrated
significant reductions in energy consumption, by tightly controlling the syrup percent and flow
rate through the evaporators.
Running syrups at higher solids is desirable, because
less moisture means less work for the dryers and
therefore lower energy consumption in the drying
process. Higher solids percentage (i.e., lower moisture
content) can be achieved by reducing the flow rate
through evaporators which increases retention time.
Unfortunately, lower flow rates can cause extensive
build up inside the lines and can also affect the
evaporator efficiency, and line plugging can cause
costly downtime. For these reasons, plant operators
need to manage the process to maintain the optimal
solids level at all times.
As with other processes, the continual, automated
measurement by coriolis meters facilitates better control
than offline lab samples. The single, straight tube
design of the KROHNE Coriolis meters mitigates the maintenance and reliability problems that
can plague conventional "bent tube" Coriolis meters, especially given the high solids content and
viscosity of the syrup. The KROHNE Coriolis meters employ adaptive sensing technologies
(AST), a patented design makes accurate measurements even of mixtures with high viscosity or
solid matter content and the straight-tube design causes less pressure drops than other
flowmeters, resulting in lower energy costs.
Volumetric Flowmetering
Upstream of fermentation, dry-milling ethanol plants make extensive use of inline
electromagnetic flowmeters to measure flows containing high solids content, such as backset,
corn slurry, mash, beer, as well as on whole, thick and thin stillage. Most magnetic flowmeters
available in the market today use a pulsed DC technology which has replaced older AC
technology that had inherent problems with drift and zero
stability. However, pulsed DC magnetic flowmeters have
performance limitations, especially with noisy applications
such as slurry.
These problems can be addressed by using the KROHNE
IFC3000 signal converters with digital noise filtering and a
low-noise electrode configuration. For demanding, high-
solids applications, KROHNE’s advanced magnetic
flowmeters provide self-diagnostic capabilities for detecting
sensor coating degradation and predicting electrode or liner
failure, in order to minimize failures and expensive
downtimes.
The multiple-parameter capability of some magnetic
flowmeters, such as the KROHNE OPTIFLUX 4300C, provides an added benefit during CIP
procedures. The CIP wash includes flushing the lines and recirculation chemical in a specific
sequence, such as acid-water-alkali-water. By using the conductivity measurement feature built
into the flowmeter, the process can be controlled automatically
and remotely to ensure a more efficient CIP cycle, facilitating
chemical reuse and reducing waste.
Applications downstream of the rectification process pose a
challenge for magnetic flowmeters due to very low
conductivities. In such cases, alternative technologies, including
vortex shedding and ultrasonic, provide a better solution.
Flowmeters with moving parts, such as turbines and paddle
wheel, are prone to coating and mechanical failure. The
KROHNE UFM3030 inline triple beam ultrasonic flow meters
have demonstrated better value over competing vortex shedding
technologies due to high accuracy and repeatability over a wider
turndown.
Controlling Steam Consumption
Flowmeters also play a critical role in controlling energy consumption by measuring the flow of
steam used extensively in cooking, dehydration and evaporation. Steam measurements are
performed on a mass flow basis, even though the high moisture contents in saturated steam
vapors causes failure of true mass flow sensing designs such as Coriolis and thermal mass
meters.
Consequently, volumetric devices such as orifice plates or vortex meters are extensively used.
Unfortunately, most of these volumetric devices measure the velocity of steam in the pipeline
and compute volumetric flow rate from the line size. When outputting mass flow, they use a
fixed density correction to convert volumetric flow to mass flow, usually calculated around a
fixed operating pressure. This fixed correction will cause significant errors in the final mass flow
during inevitable changes of the operating pressure (density) of the
steam. Field tests show that a 10% change in saturated steam line
pressure can cause a fixed-density compensated meter to over/under read
by up to 25%, even though the primary volumetric measurement from
meter is well below 1%.
The KROHNE OPTISWIRL 4070 multivariable steam meter was
designed specifically to overcome these challenges. It precisely measures
flow rate, pressure and temperature with integrated sensors and provides
accurate density compensation for highly accurate mass flow
measurement independent of operating conditions. The fully-welded
stainless steel construction makes the measuring tube of the OPTISWIRL
highly resistant to pressure, temperature, corrosion and aging and
provides high immunity to water hammer even of wet steam applications.
Accurate steam metering is critical not only for controlling the flow of
steam and regulating temperature, but it also provides a dependable
means for determining loss and wastage.
Improved Inventory Management
Level meters play an important role in improving the plant’s bottom line by
enabling tighter inventory management and process control. For example, accurate
measurement allows close tracking of the use of the enzymes in the slurry tanks
during the mash preparation process, and of the chemical consumption in the clean-
in-place routines. Measurement of the level in
fermentation tanks enables the regulation of foam,
which can be a challenge when controlling a
fermentation process. Level measurement is also
critical to operating reboilers and distillation tanks,
as well as final storage tanks.
Simply put, you need to know exactly how much
material you have, and how much you are using.

For reboilers, distillation tanks and final storage

tank farms, the KROHNE BM26A side mount level
gauge offers high reliability over technologies that have
problems measuring under tough conditions of vacuum, high
temperatures, vapor phases and foaming.
Some level measuring systems deployed use hydrostatic pressure
to measure from the bottom of the tank. This is an indirect
method of measurement that assumes a constant density to
determine the actual surface level. However, when the temperature changes, the density of the
medium will change, causing a change in pressure, even though the level of material in the tank
has not changed. Pressurized tanks need additional compensation.
An alternative approach is to use non-contact radar or guided radar level devices to directly
detect the level from the top of the tank. These methods measure distance and they are
unaffected by pressure changes, vapors or tank pressure. Top-of-tank placement also makes
repair or replacement easier. Bottom-of-tank implementations can only be serviced when the
tank is empty — a rare occurrence in active, high-volume plants.
Return on Investment
Ethanol production holds great promise for our country’s energy future and also provides an
excellent opportunity to support our domestic agricultural economy and communities.
Investments in plant infrastructure today will yield benefits for years to come.
As more and more plants come online, competition naturally increases among producers. As the
market matures, it will demand the highest possible quality at the lowest price. In this
economical environment, producers will maintain profitability only by controlling production
costs, reducing waste, and conserving energy wherever possible.
Investing in the plant’s measurement systems both during new construction or retrofit, is one
area that has been proven to offer high returns in the form of increased productivity and lower
costs.