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| Ethanol |
Ethanol is a colorless liquid alcohol made from the fermentation of starches and sugar found in biological matter such as corn kernels, molasses, sorghum and wheat starch. In the United States a major portion of ethanol is made from the processing of the corn kernels. Ethanol’s high energy density and relatively clean emissions make it an attractive substitute to gasoline.
The Ethanol Process uses either a dry mill or wet mill process to convert the corn to ethanol although only 25% uses the wet mill process with planners choosing the dry mill process because of lower capital investment.
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Dry Mill Process
- Crushing and cooking: After the corn is delivered to the plant it is crushed into flour and mixed with water to create a mixture called "mash". Enzymes such as alpha-amylase are added and sent to cooker to convert the starch into the simple sugar dextrose.
- Fermentation: After the mash is cooled, yeast is added and sent to the fermenter for 40-60 hours to convert the simple sugars to ethanol. Resulting mixture is called "beer".
- Distillation: The beer is run through distillers that separate the water and alcohol; the beer is distilled three separate times. The solid matter and water is removed leaving the end product 95% ethanol. (Water evaporates at 212 degrees F and alcohol at 178 degrees F). The process is now moved to the Molecular Sieve.
- Molecular Sieve: Material is added that helps separate the ethanol from the remaining water. At this point, the 200 proof ethanol is sent to storage tanks where denaturant is added to decrease the corrosiveness and make the ethanol undrinkable.
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Applications
- Material handling for unloading of corn
- Control valves for Distillation
- Damper drives air control for the cooking and distillation process
- Dosing valves used in the Molecular Sieve
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