ethanol distillation design

Breeding Corruption and Disrespect: Wine In The Digital Age

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Tue, 24 Mar 2009 00:42:00 +0700

The experiment known as "Prohibition" failed for one primary reason:

The legal, law enforcement and regulatory means it used to promote its goals of curbing corruption and over consumption of alcohol so far exceeded what ordinary people thought reasonable that it actually promoted a disrespect for the law and with it even more corruption.

The response to the failure of Prohibition, Repeal and the institution of a "three-tier system of alcohol distribution, has, ironically, failed for the same reasons.

To quote Professor Lawrence Lessig, speaking on NPR's "To the Best of Our Knowledge" about the impact of highly restrictive copyright laws in a digital age, "when the law reaches too far...it begins to erode society's respect for the law generally and it begins to breed a kind of corruption inside of society."

This is exactly what has happened with regard to wine distribution laws in America. The various laws that define the three-tier system by restricting more direct distribution of alcohol, particularly of the vast number of wines that have entered the American marketplace in the last 20 years, reach so far beyond what consumers and alcohol vendors want or understand as reasonable, that a certain disrespect for these law and for alcohol regulation in general, has built up inside the industry and even within the wine consuming vanguard.

In speaking to the current state of copyright law, Lessig actually uses the experience of Prohibition to note, by analogy, that excessive, ill conceived and unsupported regulation of digital culture has led to a disrespect for laws in general, but also to massive corruption inside government.

Were professor Lessig to have explored and followed the analogy of Prohibition to current copyright law to its historical outcome, he would have found that the alcohol distribution regulations that followed the demise of Prohibition have become, like Prohibition itself, so ill conceived and so unsupported as to result in corruption inside government, inside alcohol regulatory agencies, inside the semi-private institutions (alcohol distributors that occupy the middle tier of the 3 tier system) that are state mandated, and even inside the other tiers of the state mandated distribution system. This massive corruption is a result of an old system that has long failed to recognize the needs and desires of the industry groups and the general society it is supposed to serve.

What kind of corruption and disrespect for laws has the post-Prohibition 3-tier system bred?

Among Wholesalers and Distributors: Their state-mandated monopolies on alcohol distribution has led to such extreme wealth and control that they now virtually determine the lawmaking process where alcohol related laws are concerned. In addition, they are so completely favored within the legal structure of alcohol distribution that they can dictate terms to all but the largest product suppliers. And, their favored role inside the three-tier system allow them to ignore regulations that affect them with the knowledge if they are caught, the penalties will be so inconsequential as to make the law breaking worth the potential consequences that come with getting caught.

Among Producers & Suppliers: For years, and still among some today, producers and suppliers ignore many of the laws, tax reporting requirements and prohibitions on shipping directly to consumers where it is illegal. When these regulations are ignored it is done because absurd and unsupported claims are used to justify these outdated restrictions on trade and fail to take account of real consumer demand and the substantial changes in the structure of the economy, the marketplace and technology that make these restrictions and their original justifications inconsequential.

Among Vendors: Today some retailers ignore the widespread restrictions on shipping direct to consumers across state lines. They do this not because their is substantially more profit to be made by shipping direct to consumers, as there is for wineries, but because there has yet to be offered a single justification for the restrictions on retailer shipping that goes beyond the predatory and protectionist desires that wholesalers and distributors have where their control of alcohol distribution is concerned. The giant alcohol distributors and their associations offer depraved and insulting public threats of "minor access" to wine if it is shipped direct, the ridiculous notion that tainted products will be shipped across the country if they don't have a hand in their distribution and the self-serving but unsubstantiated idea that government won't collect its due taxation on wine sales if distributors don't control its collection. These set of claims are so absurd that retailers have come to develop a disrespect for the law and restrictions they are supposed to support. And in some cases that disrespect, combined with the the obvious desire among consumers to obtain the wines they offer, lead retailers to ignore the laws and find a way to get the wines shipped.

Among Alcohol Regulators: For the most part alcohol regulators across the country have found themselves in the position of being referees in between competing systematic interests groups, be they distributors, consumers, suppliers or vendors. And for the most part, they do the best job they possibly can in managing the rules and regulations that define the three-tier system. Yet, the fact that the continued existence of the arcane, ancient, silly and often unsupported rules that make up the three-tier system defines their jobs and their future has led some alcohol regulators to go well beyond simply enforcing the laws they are empowered to implement. Many actually team with the most powerful players inside this system—the distributors—to help them maintain their control and power. In Michigan we saw the head of that state's alcohol regulatory body actually lobby to strip retailers of the means to get wine to their customers, to give greater power to distributors and to further strip consumers of their ability to access legal products. That's not their job. But the nature of the system they regulate has led to this corruptive activity.

Among Lawmakers: The lawmakers at the state level that craft the rules regulating the distribution of alcohol regularly create and pass the rules that breed disrespect for laws and the corruption that ensues from that disrespect. They find themselves under different kinds of pressure. The nature of campaign financing requires them to raise substantial sums of money to get re-elected. The nature of the three tier system has given distributors the power to help them do just that. Alcohol distributors in nearly every state donate substantial sums of money to the lawmakers that are empowered to create the laws that define wine distribution. It's no wonder that the laws that are crafted most often protect the monopoly status that distributors enjoy in so many states while at the same time restricting the growth of the wine market, inhibiting the growth and prosperity of wine producers, stifling the ability of retailers to fulfill a growing demand for specialty wine products and angering consumers who are forced to take part in lawbreaking just to get a simple bottle of wine or to submerge entirely their interest in specialty products and find tainted solace in the wines to which they are told by middlemen they may have access.

I'm always wary of those people who declare that "if you are not with us, you are against us" or "if you are not part of the solution then you are part of the problem." It strikes me as an unthinking and ridged stance that doesn't account for the details and nuance of an issue that often defines reality. But in the case of the three-tier system and its corrupting nature, I'm actually inclined to believe that if you are not in favor of a complete overall of this system of alcohol distribution then you are indeed part of the problem that only breeds corruption and disrespect for law.

BIOETHANOL (clean,green,and renewable fuel )

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Tue, 24 Mar 2009 00:39:00 +0700

As one of the UK’s leading agriprocessors with an interest in innovative new technology, British Sugar began production of bioethanol in September 2007 making it the first company to manufacture bioethanol in the UK.

British Sugar is able to supply bioethanol with full traceability including a full life cycle analysis. This is necessary to demonstrate that the whole process of production, including crop growing, fermentation and distribution, is carried out in such a way that genuine environmental benefits are delivered.

About bioethanol
Bioethanol is made using yeast fermentation followed by distillation. It can be mixed with petrol at up to 5% inclusion and used in cars running on ordinary unleaded petrol.

Bioethanol life cycle
Bioethanol is a carbon-friendly fuel which is fully renewable. It can be made again and again without depleting the earth's resources.

Crops
In the UK, bioethanol can be economically produced by the fermentation of sugar beet or wheat. In our Wissington plant, we produce bioethanol from sugar beet which is supplied under contract by existing growers.

Producing up to 55,000 tonnes (70 million litres) of bioethanol every year, the plant uses around 110,000 tonnes of sugar. This is equivalent to 650,000 tonnes of sugar beet. Beet supplied to British Sugar for bioethanol manufacture is grown on existing farm land.

Production
Bioethanol is produced by the fermentation of sugars followed by distillation to produce a pure alcohol.

Fossil fuels are used in the production process but every effort is made to optimise fuel efficiency. British Sugar has embraced a system called Combined Heat & Power (CHP), recognised as one of the most fuel-efficient processes available. About 80% of the energy in the fuel is employed in the sugar manufacturing process. As a result of the close integration with the sugar factory we have been able to demonstrate savings in excess of 60% in CO2 emissions when compared to petrol.

Fuel
In the UK, bioethanol can be added to standard unleaded petrol at levels up to 5% and used in any car on the road today. In the Energy Act 2004, the UK Government provided for the enactment of a Renewable Transport Fuels Obligation (RTFO). This mechanism is very similar to the Renewables Obligation operating in the electricity sector. The obligation was introduced in April 2008 with an obligation of 2.5% biofuels in 2008-2009 and 3.75% in 2009-2010, reaching 5% for 2010-2011.

Cars
A blend of up to 5% bioethanol can be used in any unleaded car on the road in the UK today. In the longer term, there is potential for ordinary cars to use higher blends. Some car manufacturers have already developed engines to operate on blends of up to 85% bioethanol known as E85.

knowledge of ethanol for fuel

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Tue, 17 Mar 2009 20:44:00 +0700

CHAFTER ONE

Principles of Alcohol Production For Fuel

Two types of alcohol will work equally well for fuel. They are ethanol and methanol. we refer to ethanol when we speak of alcohol, unless we specifically say methanol. Alcohol content is measured in proof. The proof is twice the percent. Thus 100 proof alcohol is 50% alcohol and 50% water. 200 proof alcohol is 100% alcohol.

ETHANOL

Ethanol is also called ethyl alcohol or grain alcohol. All industrial ethanol was produced from grain fermentation until the industry discovered they could make it cheaper from petroleum. This was in pre-OPEC days. The ethanol industry was geared to producing high-purity industrial alcohol or drinkable alcohol. For this reason, they were locked in to using stainless steel and copper equipment, and also to the process of distillation. Distillation served not only to separate the alcohol from the water, but to separate other impurities from the alcohol - impurities that might make a person sick if he drank it. That is why the fuel alcohol industry started with technology developed for the liquor and industrial alcohol industry. That was all the technology there was. As more people experiment with making alcohol strictly for fuel, ways will quickly be found to do it cheaper when we get away from the traditional thinking of the old distillers. Ethanol can be made from anything containing starch or sugar. The higher the starch or sugar content, the higher is the alcohol potential of the crop. Cellulose in stalks, wood or paper can also be used to make ethanol, but the process is expensive with present technology. Starch is the most important storage form of carbohydrates in the plant kingdom. However, another significant form is inulin. Artichokes, Dahlias and Dandelions all store carbohydrates as inulin. The inulin is made up of fructose molecules instead of glucose, as in starch. It has been found that most of the carbohydrate is stored in the Jerusalem artichoke stem before the bulb starts to form. If it is stored as fructose, and if it does not change to inulin soon after harvesting, the fructose can be fermented as is. But if it is inulin, we know of no commercial, economical enzymes available to break down inulin. (Bitter almonds do contain inulinase.) The carbohydrate can be broken down with high heat and strong acid, but with a lot of energy input and 20% or more destruction of the sugar. If the fructose in the stem is useable, the tops can be cut off and the bulb left in the ground to grow again.

FERMENTATION

Enzymes break down starch into simple sugars, and yeast ferments sugars into ethanol, giving off carbon dioxide gas as a by product. The process has been used since civilization began. Starch is made up of long chains of glucose molecules coiled together. The starch must be broken down into sugars that are only one or two molecules long for the yeast to feed on. In the process described in this book, the liquefying enzyme breaks the chemical bonds at random inside the chain, producing shorter chains, or dextrins, as they are called. The saccharifying enzyme works on the end of the chain only. It could take off the glucose molecules one by one from the ends of the starch chains and eventually would convert all the starch to sugar. The liquefying enzyme gives the saccharifying enzyme more ends to work on, however, and speeds up the process considerably. There are other monosaccharicles (one molecule only) besides glucose, but glucose is the most common. Disaccharides are two monosaccharicles joined together. Table sugar (sucrose) is one glucose and one fructose molecule. Milk sugar, or lactose, is one galactose and one glucose joined together. Maltose is a disaccharide made up of two glucoses. Yeast can ferment glucose, maltose, and sucrose rapidly, and galactose and lactose slowly. Enzymes are proteins that change a chemical entity, or molecule, of one substance into a molecule of something else. The enzyme acts on the substance, but is not used up. The enzyme changes one molecule, then detaches from it and works on another molecule. A few molecules of enzyme will eventually get around to all the molecules of whatever it works on, but the right amount of enzyme will do the job faster. People have enzymes in their mouths that break down starch. If you hold a piece of soda cracker in your mouth, it will begin to taste sweet. This is exactly the process that takes place in the mash. Enzymes are highly specialized. Each one does only one thing. In this process, one enzyme chops up the long chains of starch into shorter chains. Another enzyme changes the short chains of starch into sugar. Enzymes, like humans, function within a fairly narrow range of physical conditions. They must have a certain temperature and degree of acidity. They can be rendered useless by chemical poisons, heavy metals, high heat, etc. Each enzyme has a certain set of conditions under which it works best. When grain sprouts, enzymes change the starch into sugar that the new plant can use for food. Before enzymes were avail-able for purchase, grain was sprouted, or .malted,. then dried, ground, and mixed with the rest of the grain as a source of enzymes. This method can still be used, but it is quicker to use commercially available enzymes. Starch can be broken down without enzymes with strong acid and high heat. However, the process takes a lot of time and energy, and then the excess acid has to be neutralized with alkali before fermentation can take place. After the starch is changed to sugar by enzymes, yeast changes the sugar to alcohol in the absence of air. The process is called fermentation, and it takes about 21/2 days. Carbon dioxide gas is produced as the yeast changes sugar to Alcohol. A bushel of grain yields by weight about 1/3 carbon dioxide, 1/3 ethanol, and 1/3 highprotein residue. The carbon dioxide gas can be allowed to escape through an air lock or a one-way vent valve, or it can be collected and used. The fermented mash contains about 10% alcohol. At this concentration, the alcohol begins to kill the yeast. The batching should be done so that all the sugar and starch in the mash will have been used up by the time this10%alcohol content is reached. It takes 13 pounds of sugar to yield 1 gallon of 190 proof ethanol. The amount of raw material in the mash will be determined by its starch and sugar content. In order to get fuel alcohol, the alcohol content must be increased from 10% to 90 - 95%. At present, the only workable way to do this is to distill it. In the future, other ways may be discovered which take advantage of the different properties of alcohol and water.

Distillation

The temperature of the water-alcohol mixture is raised to above the boiling point of ethanol (173 degrees F at sea level) but below the boiling point of water (212 degrees F). The alcohol changes to vapor and rises in the column, but some of the water vaporizes with it. In a simple still, like that used by the moon shiner, the distillate is about half water. If this is re-distilled, a higher concentration of alcohol can be obtained, up to about 195 proof. Further separation cannot be obtained by distillation because of a quirk in the chemistry of the mixture. (Water and alcohol form an azeotrope at this point.) The final fraction of water must be removed by other methods, if this is necessary. Farm alcohol plants can produce 190 to 192 proof alcohol with one pass through a still equipped with a reflux column, which is a device for making the mixture of liquids vaporize, condense, then re-vaporize over and over until the alcohol is nearly free of water. In summary, the starch is changed to sugar by enzymes. The yeast changes the sugar to alcohol during fermentation, giving off carbon dioxide gas and leaving a high-protein residue in the mash. The mash contains about 10% alcohol after fermentation. It is then distilled to make a fuel alcohol that is 160 to 190 proof, or 80 to 95% alcohol. After the mash has been distilled, the protein and the water are left. The water can be reused after the protein is separated, or the entire stillage can be flowed over straw or hay and fed to livestock.

METHANOL

Methanol, also called methyl alcohol or wood alcohol, works just as well as ethanol for fuel, but the process for making it is completely different. Methanol is a highly poisonous liquid. It will kill you if you drink it, and it can kill you if it soaks into the skin. Methanol is made by heating wood wastes, stalks, etc., under relatively low heat and high pressure and then purifying the product by fractionating columns. It can be made from material that is not suited to ethanol production, but if grains, for instance were used to make methanol, all the protein would be destroyed. Methanol can also be made from coal. Both ethanol and methanol have their place in farm fuel plants.

Ethanol fuel

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Tue, 17 Mar 2009 20:40:00 +0700

Ethanol fuel is ethanol (ethyl alcohol), the same type of alcohol found in alcoholic beverages. It can be used as a fuel, mainly as a bio fuel alternative to gasoline, and is widely used in cars in Brazil. Because it is easy to manufacture and process and can be made from very common crops such as sugar cane and corn, it is an increasingly common alternative to gasoline in some parts of the world. This is a renewable resource (can be produced, unlike petroleum which cannot be produced and in time will be gone).

Anhydrous ethanol (ethanol with less than 1% water) can be blended with gasoline in varying quantities up to pure ethanol (E100), and most spark-ignited gasoline style engines will operate well with mixtures of 10% ethanol (E10). Most cars on the road today in the U.S. can run on blends of up to 10% ethanol, and the use of 10% ethanol gasoline is mandated in some cities where harmful levels of auto emissions are possible.

Ethanol can be mass-produced by fermentation of sugar or by hydration of ethylene (ethene CH₂=CH₂) from petroleum and other sources. Current interest in ethanol mainly lies in bio-ethanol, produced from the starch or sugar in a wide variety of crops, but there has been considerable debate about how useful bio-ethanol will be in replacing fossil fuels in vehicles. Concerns relate to the large amount of arable land required for crops, as well as the energy and pollution balance of the whole cycle of ethanol production. Recent developments with cellulosic ethanol production and commercialization may allay some of these concerns.

According to the International Energy Agency, cellulosic ethanol could allow ethanol fuels to play a much bigger role in the future than previously thought. Cellulosic ethanol offers promise as resistant cellulose fibers, a major and universal component in plant cells walls, can be used to generate ethanol. Dedicated energy crops such as switchgrass are also promising cellulose sources that can be produced in many regions of the United States.

Chemistry

Glucose (a simple sugar) is created in the plant by photosynthesis.

6CO₂ + 6H₂O + light → C₆H₁₂O₆ + 6O₂

During ethanol fermentation, glucose is decomposed into ethanol and carbon dioxide.

C₆H₁₂O₆ → 2C₂H₆O + 2CO₂ + heat

During combustion ethanol reacts with oxygen to produce carbon dioxide, water, and heat:

C₂H₆O + 3O₂ → 2CO₂ + 3H₂O + heat

After doubling the ethanol combustion reaction because two molecules of ethanol are produced for each glucose molecule, there are equal numbers of each type of molecule on each side of the equation, and the net reaction for the overall production and consumption of ethanol is just:

light → heat

The heat of the combustion of ethanol is used to drive the piston in the engine by expanding heated gases. It can be said that sunlight is used to run the engine.

Glucose itself is not the only substance in the plant that is fermented. The simple sugar fructose also undergoes fermentation. Three other compounds in the plant can be fermented after breaking them up by hydrolysis into the glucose or fructose molecules that compose them. Starch and cellulose are molecules that are strings of glucose molecules, and sucrose (ordinary table sugar) is a molecule of glucose bonded to a molecule of fructose. The energy to create fructose in the plant ultimately comes from the metabolism of glucose created by photosynthesis, and so sunlight also provides the energy generated by the fermentation of these other molecules.

Ethanol may also be produced industrially from ethene (ethylene). Addition of water to the double bond converts ethene to ethanol:.

CH₂=CH₂ + H₂O → CH₃CH₂OH

This is done in the presence of an acid which catalyzes the reaction, but is not consumed.

When ethanol is burned in the atmosphere rather than in pure oxygen, other chemical reactions occur with different components of the atmosphere such as N₂. This leads to the production of nitrous oxides NO_x , a major air pollutant.

Sources

Ethanol is a "renewable" because it is primarily the result of conversion of the sun's energy into usable energy. Creation of ethanol starts with photosynthesis causing the feedstocks such as switchgrass, sugar cane, or corn to grow. These feedstocks are processed into ethanol.

About 5% of the ethanol produced in the world in 2003 was actually a petroleum product. It is made by the catalytic hydration of ethylene with sulfuric acid as the catalyst. It can also be obtained via ethylene or acetylene, from calcium carbide, coal, oil gas, and other sources. Two million tons of petroleum-derived ethanol are produced annually. The principal suppliers are plants in the United States, Europe, and South Africa. Petroleum derived ethanol (synthetic ethanol) is chemically identical to bio-ethanol and can be differentiated only by radiocarbon dating.

Bio-ethanol is obtained from the conversion of carbon based feedstock. Agricultural feedstocks are considered renewable because they get energy from the sun using photosynthesis, provided that all minerals required for growth (such as nitrogen and phosphorus) are returned to the land. Ethanol can be produced from a variety of feedstocks such as sugar cane, bagasse, miscanthus, sugar beet, sorghum, grain sorghum, switchgrass, barley, hemp, kenaf, potatoes, sweet potatoes, cassava, sunflower, fruit, molasses, corn, stover, grain, wheat, straw, cotton, other biomass, as well as many types of cellulose waste and harvestings, whichever has the best well-to-wheel assessment.

Current, first generation processes for the production of ethanol from corn use only a small part of the corn plant: the corn kernels are taken from the corn plant and only the starch, which represents about 50% of the dry kernel mass, is transformed into ethanol. Two types of second generation processes are under development. The first type uses enzymes and yeast to convert the plant cellulose into ethanol while the second type uses pyrolysis to convert the whole plant to either a liquid bio-oil or a syngas. Second generation processes can also be used with plants such as grasses, wood or agricultural waste material such as straw.

Technology

Ethanol-based engines

Ethanol is most commonly used to power automobiles, though it may be used to power other vehicles, such as farm tractors and airplanes. Ethanol (E100) consumption in an engine is approximately 51% higher than for gasoline since the energy per unit volume of ethanol is 34% lower than for gasoline. However, the higher compression ratios in an ethanol-only engine allow for increased power output and better fuel economy than could be obtained with lower compression ratios. In general, ethanol-only engines are tuned to give slightly better power and torque output to gasoline-powered engines. In flexible fuel vehicles, the lower compression ratio requires tunings that give the same output when using either gasoline or hydrated ethanol. For maximum use of ethanol's benefits, a much higher compression ratio should be used, which would render that engine unsuitable for gasoline use. When ethanol fuel availability allows high-compression ethanol-only vehicles to be practical, the fuel efficiency of such engines should be equal or greater than current gasoline engines. However, since the energy content (by volume) of ethanol fuel is less than gasoline, a larger volume of ethanol fuel (151%) would still be required to produce the same amount of energy. In spite of that, as the ethanol-only vehicle wastes less energy, it yields the same or higher mileage.

A 2004 MIT study and an earlier paper published by the Society of Automotive Engineersidentify a method to exploit the characteristics of fuel ethanol substantially better than mixing it with gasoline. The method presents the possibility of leveraging the use of alcohol to even achieve definite improvement over the cost-effectiveness of hybrid electric. The improvement consists of using dual-fuel direct-injection of pure alcohol (or the azeotrope or E85) and gasoline, in any ratio up to 100% of either, in a turbocharged, high compression-ratio, small-displacement engine having performance similar to an engine having twice the displacement. Each fuel is carried separately, with a much smaller tank for alcohol. The high-compression (which increases efficiency) engine will run on ordinary gasoline under low-power cruise conditions. Alcohol is directly injected into the cylinders (and the gasoline injection simultaneously reduced) only when necessary to suppress ‘knock’ such as when significantly accelerating. Direct cylinder injection raises the already high octane rating of ethanol up to an effective 130. The calculated over-all reduction of gasoline use and CO2 emission is 30%. The consumer cost payback time shows a 4:1 improvement over turbo-diesel and a 5:1 improvement over hybrid. In addition, the problems of water absorption into pre-mixed gasoline (causing phase separation), supply issues of multiple mix ratios and cold-weather starting are avoided.

Ethanol's higher octane rating allows an increase of an engine's compression ratio for increased thermal efficiency. In one study, complex engine controls and increased exhaust gas recirculation allowed a compression ratio of 19.5 with fuels ranging from neat ethanol to E50. Thermal efficiency up to approximately that for a diesel was achieved. This would result in the MPG (miles per gallon) of a dedicated ethanol vehicle to be about the same as one burning gasoline.

Since 1986 there have also been ethanol engines based on the diesel principle operating in Sweden.^{[citation needed]} They are used primarily in city buses, but also in distribution trucks, and waste collectors use this technology. The engines have a modified compression ratio, and the fuel (known as ED95) used is a mix of 95 % hydrous ethanol and 5 % ignition improver.^{[citation needed]} The ignition improver makes it possible for the fuel to ignite in the diesel combustion cycle. It is then also possible to use the energy efficiency of the diesel principle with ethanol.

Engine cold start during the winter

High ethanol blends present a problem to achieve enough vapor pressure for the fuel to evaporate and spark the ignition during cold weather. When vapor pressure is below 45 kPa starting a cold engine becomes difficult. In order to avoid this problem at temperatures below 11 ° Celsius (59 °F), and to reduce ethanol higher emissions during cold weather, both the US and the European markets adopted E85 as the maximum blend to be used in their flexible fuel vehicles, and they are optimized to run at such a blend. At places with harsh cold weather, the ethanol blend in the US has a seasonal reduction to E70 for these very cold regions, though it is still sold as E85. At places where temperatures fall below -12 °C (10 °F) during the winter, it is recommended to install an engine heater system, both for gasoline and E85 vehicles. Sweden has a similar seasonal reduction, but the ethanol content in the blend is reduced to E75 during the winter months.

Brazilian flex fuel vehicles can operate with ethanol mixtures up to E100, which is hydrous ethanol (alcohol with up to 4% water), which causes vapor pressure to drop faster as compared to E85 vehicles, and as a result, Brazilian flex vehicles are built with a small secondary gasoline reservoir located near the engine to avoid starting problems in cold weather. The cold start with pure gasoline is particularly necessary for users of Brazil's southern and central regions, where temperatures normally drop below 15 ° Celsius (59 °F) during the winter. An improved flex motor generation that will be launched in 2009 will eliminate the need for this secondary gas storage tank.

Ethanol fuel mixtures

To avoid engine stall due to "slugs" of water in the fuel lines interrupting fuel flow, the fuel must exist as a single phase. The fraction of water that an ethanol-gasoline fuel can contain without phase separation increases with the percentage of ethanol.. This shows, for example, that E30 can have up to about 2% water. If there is more than about 71% ethanol, the remainder can be any proportion of water or gasoline and phase separation will not occur. However, the fuel mileage declines with increased water content. The increased solubility of water with higher ethanol content permits E30 and hydrated ethanol to be put in the same tank since any combination of them always results in a single phase. Somewhat less water is tolerated at lower temperatures. For E10 it is about 0.5% v/v at 70 F and decreases to about 0.23% v/v at -30 F.

In many countries cars are mandated to run on mixtures of ethanol. Brazil requires cars be suitable for a 25% ethanol blend, and has required various mixtures between 22% and 25% ethanol, since of July 2007 25% is required. The United States allows up to 10% blends, and some states require this (or a smaller amount) in all gasoline sold. Other countries have adopted their own requirements. Beginning with the model year 1999, an increasing number of vehicles in the world are manufactured with engines which can run on any fuel from 0% ethanol up to 100% ethanol without modification. Many cars and light trucks (a class containing minivans, SUVs and pickup trucks) are designed to be flexible-fuel vehicles (also called dual-fuel vehicles). In older model years, their engine systems contained alcohol sensors in the fuel and/or oxygen sensors in the exhaust that provide input to the engine control computer to adjust the fuel injection to achieve stochiometric (no residual fuel or free oxygen in the exhaust) air-to-fuel ratio for any fuel mix. In newer models, the alcohol sensors have been removed, with the computer using only oxygen and airflow sensor feedback to estimate alcohol content. The engine control computer can also adjust (advance) the ignition timing to achieve a higher output without pre-ignition when it predicts that higher alcohol percentages are present in the fuel being burned. This method is backed up by advanced knock sensors - used in most high performance gasoline engines regardless of whether they're designed to use ethanol or not - that detect pre-ignition and detonation.

Environment

Energy balance

All biomass goes through at least some of these steps: it needs to be grown, collected, dried, fermented, and burned. All of these steps require resources and an infrastructure. The total amount of energy input into the process compared to the energy released by burning the resulting ethanol fuel is known as the energy balance (or "Net energy gain"). Figures compiled in a 2007 by National Geographic Magazine point to modest results for corn ethanol produced in the US: one unit of fossil-fuel energy is required to create 1.3 energy units from the resulting ethanol. The energy balance for sugarcane ethanol produced in Brazil is more favorable, 1:8. Energy balance estimates are not easily produced, thus numerous such reports have been generated that are contradictory. For instance, a separate survey reports that production of ethanol from sugarcane, which requires a tropical climate to grow productively, returns from 8 to 9 units of energy for each unit expended, as compared to corn which only returns about 1.34 units of fuel energy for each unit of energy expended.

Carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas, is emitted during fermentation and combustion. However, this is canceled out by the greater uptake of carbon dioxide by the plants as they grow to produce the biomass. When compared to gasoline, depending on the production method, ethanol releases less greenhouse gases.

Air pollution

Compared with conventional unleaded gasoline, ethanol is a particulate-free burning fuel source that combusts with oxygen to form carbon dioxide, water and aldehydes (a contraction of alcohol dehydrogenated). Gasoline produces 2.44 CO2 equivalent kg/l and ethanol 1.94 (this is -21% CO2)^{[citation needed]}. The Clean Air Act requires the addition of oxygenates to reduce carbon monoxide emissions in the United States. The additive MTBE is currently being phased out due to ground water contamination, hence ethanol becomes an attractive alternative additive. Current production methods include air pollution from the manufacturer of macronutrient fertilizers such as ammonia.

A study by atmospheric scientists at Stanford University found that E85 fuel would increase the risk of air pollution deaths relative to gasoline. Ozone levels are significantly increased, thereby increasing photochemical smog and aggravating medical problems such as asthma.

Carbon dioxide

The calculation of exactly how much carbon dioxide is produced in the manufacture of bioethanol is a complex and inexact process, and is highly dependent on the method by which the ethanol is produced and the assumptions made in the calculation. A calculation should include:

The cost of growing the feedstock
The cost of transporting the feedstock to the factory
The cost of processing the feedstock into bioethanol

Such a calculation may or may not consider the following effects:

The cost of the change in land use of the area where the fuel feedstock is grown.
The cost of transportation of the bioethanol from the factory to its point of use
The efficiency of the bioethanol compared with standard gasoline
The amount of Carbon Dioxide produced at the tail pipe.
The benefits due to the production of useful bi-products, such as cattle feed or electricity.

The graph on the right shows figures calculated by the UK government for the purposes of the Renewable transport fuel obligation.

The January 2006 Science article from UC Berkeley's ERG, estimated reduction from corn ethanol in GHG to be 13% after reviewing a large number of studies. However, in a correction to that article released shortly after publication, they reduce the estimated value to 7.4%. A National Geographic Magazine overview article (2007) puts the figures at 22% less CO₂ emissions in production and use for corn ethanol compared to gasoline and a 56% reduction for cane ethanol. Carmaker Ford reports a 70% reduction in CO₂ emissions with bioethanol compared to petrol for one of their flexible-fuel vehicles.

An additional complication is that production requires tilling new soil which produces a one-off release of GHG that it can take decades or centuries of production reductions in GHG emissions to equalize. As an example, converting grass lands to corn production for ethanol takes about a century of annual savings to make up for the GHG released from the initial tilling.

Increasing Biofuel Demand and its Impacts on Markets and Poverty - the Output of Two Recent Seminars and the BIOMASS Project

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Mon, 9 Mar 2009 20:10:00 +0700

In the previous Palawija News, Robin Bourgeois suggested that we should link promoting Clean Renewable Energy (CRE) to poverty alleviation (Palawija News 23(4) p. 6-11). With that idea in mind, this article describes the output of two seminars recently held in Japan. Both seminars focused on how a rising demand of biofuel would affect the international agricultural commodity market. Then, the outline of the JIRCAS and CAPSA's collaboration project (BIOMASS) will be presented. The project focuses on the effects of an increasing biomass energy market on poverty alleviation and sustainable development.

Seminar one: Agriculture market outlook - special focus on biofuel development
The seminar was organized by the Policy Research Institute of the Japanese Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries (PRIMAFF). It was held on 19 June 2007 in Tokyo. Dr. Loek Boonekamp, Head of the Agrifood Trade and Markets Division, Directorate for Trade and Agriculture of OECD presented the paper "The Aglink Cosimo Model " Its Use in Market Outlook and Policy Analyses". Dr. Boonekamp has been responsible for OECDs agriculture market outlook since 1995. The Aglink Cosimo model is a large-scale partial equilibrium model of global agricultural markets. The Aglink Cosimo modelling system is presently one of the most comprehensive partial equilibrium models for global agriculture. The model is one of the tools used in generating baseline projections that underlie the OECD-FAO Agricultural Outlook¹.

The main conclusions of the 2007 Agricultural Outlook were presented during the seminar. They are summarized below.

Expected world commodity prices
Price expectations for major agricultural commodities were calculated as the average of world prices of the coming ten years. This year's price projection (average price 2007-2016) is significantly higher than last year's projection (average price 2006-2015). The difference between the two projections is especially large for cereals (e.g. maize: +28 per cent), dairy (e.g. cheese: +25 per cent) and animal products (e.g. beef: +20 per cent).

Cereal demands for biofuel
It is anticipated that in 2016, around 60 per cent of Brazil's sugar cane production, and more than half of the EU's oilseed production will be used for bioenergy, bio-ethanol and biodiesel respectively. The biofuel industry will become a large consumer of cereals. Cereal demands for the biofuel industry will heavily depend on future feedstock and oil prices, and on the advent of new technologies and government policies. At this moment in time, it is therefore difficult to make precise predictions for future demands of the biofuel industry. This will cause the biofuel industry to act as a major uncertainty of cereal markets.

Increased world trade in agricultural commodities
Compared to the average figures of 2004-2006, the imports of agricultural commodities in 2016 will show a large increase. Above all, beef, vegetable oils and butter will increase with more than 40 per cent. As for the export, most growth will come from developing countries, especially Argentina and Brazil. OECD countries will decrease their share of world export but they will still remain dominant traders in the international market. Very few developing countries will dominate imports, except China with its oilseeds import, which will represent more than 70 per cent of the total world import in 2016.

Projections for world market commodity prices
Projections show a trend of rising commodity prices, as mentioned before. In fact, price increases already have been observed in several oil and starch crops. Some analysts warned that this might be a negative impact of the rising biofuel demand. Before testing this hypothesis, it is useful to refer to two basic facts. Firstly, declining global stocks of agricultural commodities provide a context for more volatile markets. Secondly, extraordinary weather patterns such as El-Nino have lowered global cereal production and exports. An increased ethanol production has surely also raised wheat and coarse grain consumption. However, the drop in supplies has been much larger than the rise in demand, at least during 2006-2007 world cereal markets. Therefore, the biofuel industry cannot be taken to be solely responsible for the higher crop prices.

Long-term market and trade impacts of growing bioenergy demand
Then, what about long-term impacts? We need to remember that currently without government support, ethanol is not an economically viable option in most countries. The economics of biofuel production is highly influenced by the crude oil prices. In 2004, when the oil price was around US$40/barrel, sugar cane ethanol in Brazil was the only economically feasible option. With the oil price level of April 2006, around US$70/barrel, maize ethanol was also economically feasible in the USA. However, US$100/barrel is required for wheat and sugar beat ethanol, and rape oil biodiesel in the EU. It is anticipated that cereal based ethanol production will grow rapidly in the coming ten years and it will require a substantial quantity of maize and wheat. The consequences of this will be: (i) lower wheat and maize exports; (ii) land to be drawn out of oilseed production; and (iii) overall higher crop prices. In conclusion, crop prices are expected to be higher and more unstable on the long term. This situation will provide higher incomes for some farmers, but higher costs for others.

Seminar two: the 9th joint biomass seminar
The seminar was held in Tsukuba, Japan on 13 June 2007 and was organized by the Consultative Assembly of Independent Administration Agency for Biofuel Research and Development. One of the papers named "Enhancement of Bioethanol and its Implication to Cereal Trade in the USA and China" presented during the seminar will be described shortly here. The paper was presented by Dr. Ruan Wei, Senior Researcher, Norinchukin Research Institute, Agricultural and Forestry Central Bank.

Transformation of US energy policies and increasing maize demand
The USA plans to reduce its reliance on Middle East oil by 75 per cent by 2025. To reach this, the government is trying to increase ethanol production to 7.5 billion gallon under the 2005's new Energy Law. Most analysts suggest, however, that the target is set too low, considering that the ethanol production in the USA already reached 4 billion gallon in 2005. This amount equals 3 per cent of total gasoline sales in the country. Maize demand for ethanol production is increasing and represented 14.4 per cent of the total maize production of 2005, while the share of maize export is 19.3 per cent. However, it is anticipated that maize demands for ethanol production will as soon as 2007 surpass export amounts.

From ‘alternative energy’ to ‘price support’
Until recently, cereal production in the USA heavily depended on the export market. Exports presented sometimes more than 40 per cent of total maize production. However, due to shrinking export market in late nineties the cereal price dropped much. The first ethanol plant led by farmers started in 1992 in Nebraska, USA. It was just after the establishment of tax incentives for small-scale ethanol producers and the compulsory use of ethanol based gasoline combustion by the Clean Air Act in 1990. Though the objective of ethanol development was to develop alternative energy, it also aided rural development and created price support through stimulating domestic maize demand. It also contributed to reducing farm subsidies. Some people however criticize that only the primary recipients of subsidies have changed from farmers to the biofuel industry.

USDA agricultural baseline projection to 2015
According to prospects made by USDA (United States Department of Agriculture) for the next decade, US maize export will continue to be only around 20 per cent of its total production. Farm gate price of maize will remain relatively high during the same period. The total planted area of major cereals will be stable, but maize will occupy a larger area mainly due to the increase of continuous maize cropping. As genetically modifies maize becomes more popular, the yield of maize will be continuously improved. The competitiveness of US maize production in the world market will be overwhelming during the prospected period. Maize production is anticipated to catch up with its growing demand due to yield increases.

Ethanol production in China
China enlarged its ethanol production in 2002, because of the increasing amount of maize in stock. In 2005, four ethanol plants supported by the government produced one million ton of ethanol from 3.3 million ton of maize, which is 2.4 per cent of the total maize production. In nine provinces of China, 8 to 12 per cent of ethanol is added to gasoline making gasohol (alcohol mixed gasoline). The total amount of gasohol consumption is around 10 million ton, which is around 20 per cent of the total gasoline consumption in the whole country. It is targeted that the ratio would reach to 50 per cent in 2010. To attain this target, 10 million ton maize will be required for ethanol production. This reflects 7.8 per cent of total maize production of 2005.

Restriction of maize based ethanol plant
Recently, the demand of maize for industrial use increased very rapidly, by more than 20 per cent per year. The reason of expansion is not only ethanol production but also growing cornstarch demand. In responds to the decreased sugar cane exports from Brazil, China is replacing sugar cane by cornstarch. In December 2006, the Chinese government restricted the establishment of new maize ethanol plants. They are now recommending using alternative raw material for ethanol production such as sweet potato, cassava and maize stalks. Government's subsidies for maize ethanol production were reduced from 1,883 yuan/ton in 2005 to 1,628 yuan/ton in 2006, and 1,373 yuan/ton in 2007.

Current food production in China and future prospects
Cereal yields in China are much lower than that of other major cereal producers like the USA. If yields can be improved, this large yield gap presents a potentially large production increase. The Chinese government declared to want to maintain its high level of self-sufficiency (approximately 95 per cent) for three major cereals (rice, maize and wheat) while it will depend on import to meet the rising soybean demand. A higher production of rice, maize and wheat will be achieved mainly through increases in yields, and not by expansion of arable land. However, USDA warns that in spite of China's effort, China will become a maize importing country and it may be a possible factor of price hike in the international market.

Outline of the BIOMASS-project
The above two seminars reported the emerging biofuel production and suggested possible disturbances to the international market in the long run. Though the tangible proof of this impact is not yet given. For poor rural households in developing countries, both positive and negative impacts of expanding biofuel are anticipated. These households commonly produce secondary crops, which are the major stockpiles for biofuel production. Therefore, they might enjoy better prices and a better income due to a raise in commodity demand. Rising food staple prices will however harm small-scale farmers who are net food consumers.

In 2006, JIRCAS and CAPSA started a collaborative research project "Impact Analysis of Expanding Biomass Energy Use to Rural Poverty in Tropical Asia (BIOMASS)" through Special Co-ordination Funds for Promoting Science and Technology of the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology of the Japanese Government. Before the start of the project, some data was collected to determine the focus of the project. This determined that the project will focus on socio-economic aspects of biofuel development, especially its implication to poverty alleviation and sustainable development.

After the Kyoto Protocol came into effect in 2005, more attention has been paid to the development of the biofuel industry. This was not only seen in industrialized countries that have an obligation to reduce green house gas emission under the Kyoto Protocol, but also in developing countries such as Indonesia. Indonesia became a net oil importer and suffers from a huge burden of subsidies for transportation fuels.

Various mechanisms approved under the Kyoto Protocol are planned to initiate a capital flow to developing countries for investments in renewable energy projects. The Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) is proposed as a part of the 'flexibility mechanisms' of the Kyoto Protocol. CDM is expected to promote investments in the development of renewable energy in developing countries, especially in disadvantaged areas where secondary crops, the raw materials for biomass energy, are produced.

The tropical countries in Asia have a large potential for biomass production. It is expected that various large-scale projects concerning the production of some major energy crops (e.g. cassava, oil palm, sugar cane etc.) will be implemented in near future. Initiatives are expected to be taken by both industrialized countries through CDM schemes and by tropical Asian countries themselves. The Indonesian government targets for biofuel to account for about 10 per cent of the country's energy portfolio by 2010. They also expect the sector to create around 3 million jobs and cut foreign-exchange expenditure from importing fuel by US$10 billion by 20102².

Since most of the energy crops are mainly produced by small-scale farmers, we can say that the expanding use of biofuel will probably provide precious opportunities for rural people to improve their welfare. An increased demand for energy crops can contribute to increase the price of these products. Moreover, the installation of biofuel plants will create job opportunities especially for the rural population. The bulkiness of the raw material makes transportation to processing sides expensive. Therefore processing sites are commonly placed near the production sites, meaning that jobs created are mainly for rural people.

On the other hand, if the government fails to manage the biomass development appropriately, some negative impacts will occur such as deforestation, conflicts with food production and negative effects such as water contamination of an increased use of chemical inputs.

To ensure sustainable biofuel development, which is compatible with rural poverty alleviation, it is crucial to analyse how the expanding demand of biomass energy will affect rural society, especially small-scale farmers and poor people who are the potential beneficiaries. The Indonesian government has established a national body in charge for issuing an approval of a CDM project in Indonesia, based on the Environmental Ministry Decree of 2005, namely the National Commission for CDM in Indonesia. Once the application of CDM is submitted, the commission evaluates the project proposal. The evaluation is based on national sustainable development criteria and indicators, which reflect environmental, economic, social and technological aspects. These criteria and indicators can work as practical benchmarks to design the sustainable biomass resource management systems. Estimating possible impacts of biomass energy use in some specific areas will provide useful information and lessons. Lessons that can be used in the policy formulation process to support more sustainable use of local resources and larger contribution to poverty alleviation.

After the completion of the BIOMASS study, all findings will be integrated and published as a working paper. It will be disseminated to policymakers through CAPSA's channels such as country seminars and CAPSA's website. At regional level, the outcome is expected to feed into current regional studies of JIRCAS. JIRCAS has been co-ordinating a research project that aims at developing analytical tools for biomass resource management systems in tropical Asia. Such tools enable policy planners in Asia's developing regions to design sustainable and pro-poor biomass resource management policies. JIRCAS has also been one of the co-organizers of the Asian Biomass Workshops, which have been held three times since 2004. The information collected in the project will be delivered to the participants of these workshops. Participants include researchers and policy planners in Asia's developing countries that work for rural poverty alleviation by expanding the production of biomas raw material.

^* Senior Researcher, Japan International Research Center for Agricultural Sciences (JIRCAS), Tsukuba, Japan.
¹ http://www.agri-outlook.org/
² The Jakarta Post, 25 July 2006.

by Tomohide Sugino, http://www.uncapsa.org

E20 - Bio-Ethanol 20%

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Mon, 9 Mar 2009 19:46:00 +0700

Ford is a world class leading automotive company, which is always committed to invent alternative fuelled vehicles. Ford is proud to support Indonesian government in the effort to conserve energy resources through varieties of Ford products in Indonesia.

Ford is fully aware that energy conversation is a very critical issue whether in Indonesia or in global environment. Ford is in a leading position towards more fuel-efficient machine technology development environmental friendly, and is open to new alternative technology utilization such as hybrid, bio-diesel, gasohol, and hydrogen. In Indonesia, Ford has presented the most recent state of the art automotive technology, which is in line with local regulations regarding newest emission level requirements derived from global markets including Europe and United States. Indonesian Government through Pertamina has launched a certain fuel containing substances from vegetable oil such as bio-solar for diesel machines and bio-gasoline for gasoline machines.

Ford Focus variants, which are available in Indonesia, have already been designed to consume gasoline and bio-ethanol mixtures in order to allow 20% of its substance ingredients to be obtained from local plants in Indonesia such as various sugar canes and tubers. Besides Ford Focus that has utilized ethanol as mixing fuel ingredients up to 20%, Ford also has Ford Ranger and Ford Everest that consume Bio-Diesel with 5% mixture of biofuel which are already available in Indonesia.

The development of biofuel has a wide social and economic dimension, which expected to boost economic development in rural and provincial areas, especially for farmer who plant sugar-cane, tuber, and corn since the three farm products are the key-ingredients for producing bio-ethanol. This is also true for farmers producing and palm oil, key ingredients for making bio-diesel fuel. By strengthening the economic development in rural and provincial areas, Ford expect to support and encourage initiatives and programs with regards to social problems such as poverty allegation, urbanization and education programs.

source : http://www.ford.co.id

Ethanol and biofuels

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sat, 7 Mar 2009 21:57:00 +0700

Here you will find information about the Brazilian policy on ethanol and biofuels, through a sample of questions and answers.

1. What is fuel ethanol?
Ethanol is synonym with ethyl alcohol. Both terms refer to a type of alcohol consisting of two carbon atoms, five hydrogen atoms, and one hydroxyl group. As opposed to gasoline, ethanol is a pure substance consisting of only one type of molecule: C2H5OH. In ethanol production, however, it is necessary to distinguish anhydrous ethanol (or anhydrous ethyl alcohol) and hydrous ethanol (or hydrous ethyl alcohol). The difference lies in the water content of the ethanol grade: the water content of anhydrous ethanol is lower than 1 percent (approximately 99.3ºGL). The hydrous ethanol that is sold at fuel stations has a water content of 7 percent(approximately 93ºGL). In the industrial production of ethanol, the hydrous grade is the one that comes directly from distillation tower. Producing anhydrous ethanol requires an additional processing stage that removes most of the water contained the fuel.

2.How is fuel ethanol used in Brazil today?
Around 80 percent of Brazil’s ethanol production is used as fuel, whereas 5 percent is used in foods, perfumes and alcohol chemicals, and 15 percent is exported.
Anhydrous ethanol is used in the production of ‘C’ gasoline, which is the only gasoline that can be marketed within Brazil’s national territory for fueling motor vehicles. Fuel distributors purchase anhydrous ethanol from distilleries and ‘A’ gasoline (pure grade) from refineries, and then blend them at a rate that may range from 20 to 25 percent anhydrous ethanol. That means that fuel distributors are in fact the formulators of ‘C’ gasoline: they purchase two products on the market (‘A’ gasoline and anhydrous ethanol, which cannot be sold separately to end
consumers) and produce a new gasoline grade, the ‘C’ gasoline, for consumption by vehicles.
Hydrous ethanol is used directly as a fuel for motor vehicles. It is the ethanol that consumers buy at the fuel station for vehicles that either run exclusively on ethanol or are equipped with “flex-fuel” engines. Consumers who own flex-fuel vehicles can also use hydrous ethanol exclusively.

3. Is it true that ethanol has a negative energy balance, i.e. the energy we use to produce it (sugar-cane growing, transportation, industrial processing) is greater than the energy we get from the very ethanol for use in engines?
It is not true. That conclusion is a mistake that originates in analyses of the ethanol that is produced from corn in the USA. That is not the case of sugar-cane ethanol, such as the ethanol produced in Brazil.
In Brazil’s sugar-cane industry, the ratio between the renewable energy produced and the fossil energy used is 8.9 ethanol (2005). That figure is the highest among all liquid fuels produced from biomass around the world; the various biodiesel grades range from 2.0 to 3.0.
When corn ethanol is considered (as produced in the USA), that ratio ranges from 1.3 to 1.8; in fact, it was estimated at less than 1.0 (negative balance) a few years ago, at the beginning of the American program, but the processes have been gaining efficiency. For beet ethanol (such as that produced in Germany) or wheat ethanol (in some European countries), the ratio is approximately 2.0; sweet sorghum ethanol (estimates, in Africa) supposedly displays a ratio of 4.0. The main reason for the positive ratio provided by the Brazilian ethanol is because the sugar-cane industry does not use any fossil energy in the ethanol production process (only the sugar-cane bagasse is used). As a result, the production process (as well as the product) in Brazil features much greater sustainability than those of other countries. This fact, which is now well-known here, is becoming known out of Brazil as well, showing ethanol as an excellent fuel from an oil-saving stand point, as well as in terms of mitigation of greenhouse gas emissions.

4. What do sugar-cane and ethanol represent in Brazil’s energy base?
The use of ethanol as a fuel in Brazil reached 12 million cubic meters in 2005 (production amounted to 14.4 million cubic meters), representing around 40 percent of the fuels used in motor vehicles that year (Otto cycle). The sugar-cane agribusiness also generated 9.7 TWh of electric and mechanical power (drives), most of which having been consumed by itself (that is equivalent to 3 percent of all the electric power consumed in the country). The use of bagasse as a fuel was 17.5 M toe (tons of oil equivalent).
In 2006, Brazil achieved self-sufficiency in oil, producing 1.8 to 1.9 million barrels a day (boe/day). Oil corresponds (2004) to 40.4 percent of the Production of Primary Energy in Brazil, with a strong share in transportation, the industrial sector, and non-energy uses.
Said self-sufficiency relies on the significant contribution provided by the sugar-cane industry, the share of which in the Production of Primary Energy reached 15.4 percent (2004). In 2005, the ethanol share was around 160,000 boe/day (13% of the total energy for transportation), and the amount of sugar-cane bagasse used as an industrial fuel (foods like sugar, citrus fruit and others) and in the energy sector (ethanol production) was around 410,000 boe/day. Of such amount, 63 percent is used directly as a fuel in the industrial sector (foods): 260,000 boe/day; in the industrial sector, the sugar-cane bagasse supplies as much energy as fuel oil and natural gas combined.
Therefore, even if the thermal energy produced from the sugar-cane bagasse for use in ethanol production (around 150,000 bee/day) were to be left out of account, the sugar-cane industry would still help to replace 420,000 boe/day worth of fuels (gasoline, fuel oil or natural gas) for the transportation and industrial sectors.

5. Can ethanol be used in existing gasoline vehicles in other countries around the world?
Several experiences in several countries since the 1970’s (Brazil, USA, Canada, Sweden, China, India, Thailand, Colombia, Jamaica, etc.) have successively demonstrated the technical feasibility of using ethanol-gasoline blends in vehicles (cars, pickup trucks, motorcycles, etc.) originally made to run on gasoline, requiring no change in the engine or the vehicle. Virtually all automakers in the world consider blends containing up to 10 percent ethanol to be acceptable. In fact, using blends is usually the fastest, most practical way of getting a fuel ethanol program started. Even though the ethanol content of the blend is mainly determined by the availability of the product and some economic and political factors, fuel specifications can also be a determining factor in this process.
In Brazil, the ethanol content of gasoline is higher than in other countries, ranging from 20 to 25 percent. Due to this characteristic, vehicles come out of the plant already prepared for that blend rate or, if imported, undergo the necessary adaptations (engine tuning and replacement of some components with other ethanol-compatible ones). It is important to point out that all of the gasoline distributed at the nation’s fuel stations contains ethanol.

6. What precautions are needed for using ethanol-gasoline blends in older vehicles in countries where that practice is not usual?
There is no impediment to the use of ethanol-gasoline blends in older vehicles. However, deposits of gasoline in the fuel supply system are usually found in those cases. Therefore, when ethanol-gasoline blends are used for the first time in older vehicles, it is advisable to make the first two fuel filter replacements at shorter intervals than usually recommended. Since it is a property of ethanol to clear the gasoline deposits, that practice prevents premature filter clogging and the resulting undesirable effects on the engine operation.
Although most of the materials that have been used in vehicles for many years are compatible with the anhydrous ethanol that is added to gasoline, it is advisable to periodically check the condition of gaskets, plastic materials and metallic components that are directly in contact with the fuel in order to ensure their integrity.
It is important for the ethanol that is added to gasoline to be the “anhydrous” grade and to have the quality characteristics that are appropriate for that kind of use. Where ethanol-gasoline blends are used, product quality specifications for both straight ethanol and blends containing ethanol are usually in place. Up-to-date Brazilian specifications can by found on the National Oil, Natural Gas and Biofuels Agency’s website (www.anp.gov.br).

7. How are ethanol-gasoline blends prepared?
Ethanol and gasoline feature good miscibility, and it is relatively easy to prepare blends with them. The simplest method, which is extensively used in Brazil, is to blend them at the distributor’s plant as the tanker truck that will carry the product to the point of sale is filled up. The mixing process can be either manual, preferably by first pouring the desired volume of ethanol and then the gasoline, or automatic, at the very fuel line that fills up the tanker truck. The mixing process requires the same caution and safety measure as used for handling any other fuels. It is important to prevent the mixture from being contaminated with water in order to avoid engine problems.

8. Can ethanol be used alone as fuel?
Brazil has been the world’s major laboratory for the use of ethanol as a fuel, and more than 5 million vehicles specifically designed to run exclusively on ethanol have been manufactured in the country. Although ethanol has a lower energy content than straight gasoline (approximately 65%), it has several technical characteristics that make it perfectly suited for use as a fuel and partially make up for that lower energy content, such as the fuel’s high
octane rating. In practice, vehicles that run exclusively on ethanol display a better performance (greater power and torque) and a longer service life than the gasoline-fueled equivalents. On the other hand, consumption increases by 20 to 30 percent in volume, depending on the characteristics of the vehicle.
Compared to fossil fuels, ethanol provides more environmental benefits because the fuel vapors and gas emissions from the exhaust are less toxic, and also because the emission of carbon dioxide (CO2), which accounts for most of the increase in the greenhouse effect, can be absorbed by sugar-cane through the photosynthesis process.
Based on the experienced gained from the use of exclusively ethanol-fueled vehicles, the fuel started to be used in aviation, as in the case of the IPANEMA alcohol-fueled agricultural aeroplane, which has been commercially produced by Embraer since 2004 (www.aeroneiva.com.br). Straight ethanol can also be used in flex-fuel engines, as well as in industrial facilities for generating thermal energy and electricity.

9. What are “Flex-Fuel” vehicles?
They are vehicles equipped with an engine management system that can accurately identify the presence of gasoline and/or ethanol in the fuel tank, and then automatically adjust the engine operation accordingly. There are versions that use ethanol sensors, which are installed either in the tank or on the fuel line and are more common in the United States, while others identify the presence of ethanol through a sensor that measures the amount of oxygen contained in the exhaust gas, which is the system in place in Brazil.
In the USA and a few other countries like Canada and Sweden, vehicles run on both straight gasoline and or any blends with an ethanol content of up to 85 percent (E85) on non-winter days and 70 percent during the winter (E70). In Brazil, those vehicles run on gasoline, which contains 20 to 25 percent ethanol as it is, and any blends with higher ethanol contents, or even 100 percent ethanol (E100). This difference in the design of flex-fuel systems is determined by the characteristics of the fuels available in each
Country, the local climate, and whether or not auxiliary cold-start systems are available in vehicles.
A major advantage of the flex-fuel concept is that it enables the use of ethanol under limited infrastructural conditions for distributing the fuel, as in the case of the United States. It also allows consumers to opt for the fuel of their choice, as in the case of Brazil.
The flex-fuel engine concept has also been adopted for hybrid vehicles that operate with a dual-motor system (an electric motor and an internal combustion engine), which further improves its ability to reduce emissions of CO2 and other air pollutants.

10. Why does ethanol arouse so much interest worldwide?
Today, the greater interest in the use of ethanol as an energy source results from the need to replace part of the oil that is used and reduce greenhouse gas emissions. The possibility to reduce the local pollution in urban centers by adding ethanol to gasoline, while improving gasoline quality thanks to the anti-knock power of ethanol, is also an important reason for such interest. The work carried out in Brazil is particularly important because it has demonstrated that very significant production levels can be attained at competitive costs.

source : http://www.brazilembassy.or.id

De Dietrich distillation

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sat, 7 Mar 2009 21:44:00 +0700

Distillation is an operation whereby the vaporization of a liquid mixture yields a vapor phase containing more than one component, and it is desired to recover one or more of these components in a pure state. This is distinct from evaporation which is not discussed in this section.

Distillation as such is a major unit operation in the chemical processing industry for the purification or separation of liquid mixtures. Other principle unit operations of separation are evaporation and extraction. Distillation and evaporation are often considered simultaneously because of their use of heat to achieve separation.

Distillation in practical operations can be effected on either a continuous or a batch mode of operation. A simple reboiler and condenser arrangement with an unpacked column provides one theoretical stage of separation. This is suitable for mixtures containing a volatile solvent with non volatile impurities. Columns which are packed or fitted with trays provide several theoretical stages of separation. Such arrangements are valuable for liquid mixtures in which both components have similar relative volatilities.

Although the effectiveness of the distillation operation is dependent upon such theoretical considerations as the relative volatility of the components. In practice, the design of a distillation unit is extremely important.

Borosilicate glass equipment has been used successfully for many years in the field of distillation operations. Many units have been installed using the distillation operation, especially for the recovery of solvents. However, details on this particular aspect are not covered in this section.

Glass distillation columns are normally filled with packing materials made of borosilicate glass, but other packing materials can also be supplied. Cooling arrangements for the distillate can use either shell and tube or coil type heat exchangers. Specific advice on both the optimum packing material and the method of operation can be given by our Chemical Engineers.

Glass columns can vary in diameter from 80 to 1000 mm and columns have been erected to heights of up to 30 meters. Glass distillation units can operate at atmospheric pressure or at high vacuum, using special low pressure loss packings.

Distillation Unit with Coil Type Condenser

The distillation arrangement with descending type coil condenser is one of the simplest types of condenser arrangements and includes a total condenser, product cooler and vent condenser.

By combining glass process plant equipment with other materials, we can offer well proven units in a a variety of sizes. Glass reaction vessels are available up to 400 liters in capacity and, where larger units are required, glass-lined and stainless steel vessels are commonly used. Coil type condensers have surface areas from 0.2m² up to 12m². Using cooling water at 20&degC these condensers have heat transfer coefficients of up to 250 kcal/m²/h&degC.

This up and over type distillation unit is suitable for use under vacuum conditions and is an ideal facility for reactions involving total reflux.

Distillation Unit with Shell and Tube Condenser

This distillation arrangement is virtually identical to the previous arrangement. The main difference is that shell and tube heat exchangers have been incorporated instead of coil condensers. Shell and tube type condensers have surface areas from 3m² to 26m². Using cooling water at 20&degC these condensers have heat transfer coefficients of up to 900 kcal/m²h&degC.

The most important feature of this arrangement is the low installation height.

Distillation Unit with Phase Separation

This distillation arrangement illustrates the use of a horizontal separation vessel in a distillation unit.

In this arrangement, the light phase flows back into the boiler as the reflux and the heavy phase flows through a condenser into the receiver as the product. It is easy to reverse the system to enable the heavy phase to become the reflux.

The arrangement can be operated under vacuum and the illustration shows suitable receivers.

Batch Distillation Column

Batch distillation columns always have a reboiler vessel sized to accommodate the entire batch of the material to be distilled.

For small batch operations, glass vessels up to 200 liters in capacity are normally used and, where larger batches are required, glass-lined or stainless steel vessels are available.

Glass distillation columns are available from 80 to 100 mm in nominal bore and are ideal for operation under both atmospheric and vacuum conditions.

Columns of this nature are operated under conditions of either fixed reflux ratio or variable reflux ratio. This illustration shows a batch distillation column which includes a total condenser, product cooler and the facility for providing reflux at the top of the column by means of the control valve. Reflux timers are also available.

Continuous Distillation Column

Continuous distillation columns always have this same basic construction. For the reboiler, a circulatory evaporator is often selected and, as pre-heaters, our HEB type boilers are ideal.

The main point to consider in continuous distillation columns is the automatic control system. Many standard systems are available and, in this illustration an electro-magnetically controlled reflux divider with timer is shown.

Glass distillation columns are available from 80 to 1000 mm in nominal bore and ideal for operation under both atmospheric and vacuum conditions.

Advanced Process Modelling for separation systems

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sat, 7 Mar 2009 21:36:00 +0700

Optimal process and control system design for an azeotropic distillation system

Based on the report "Simultaneous Design and Control of the Shell Azeotropic Distillation System using Mixed-Integer Dynamic Optimization" by Vikrant Bansal and Roderick Ross, Centre for Process Systems Engineering and PSE (2001). Please note that for confidentiality reasons, exact details of the process and the control and design alternatives mentioned are not provided.

Summary

Mixed-integer and dynamic optimisation were used to select the best of several proposed control schemes for an existing two-column coupled distillation unit operating under low and high-frequency disturbances. This led to a significant improvement in the controllability of the unit. Mixed integer Optimisation (MIO) was then used to improve the design of future units by selecting optimal feed and draw tray locations, while simultaneously optimising the column diameters. This identified significant improvements in capital and annual operating cost.

The project was performed on a Shell alcohol separation unit at Pernis in the Netherlands.

Process

The two-column distillation system forms part of the Shell alcohol separation train at Pernis in the Netherlands. Figure 1 shows the separations taking place. There is a ternary azeotrope at the top of Column 1. The unit is subject to regular low frequency disturbances resulting from changes in feed rate and high-frequency disturbances resulting from fluctuation in the feed composition.

Figure 1. The two-column azeotropic distillation process

For many years the system had been very difficult to control. Good operation depends critically on the composition around the side draw tray in Column I being within a certain range. If the composition goes outside that range, Column II cannot operate correctly and the system enters into a sustained period of unsteady behaviour.

Study 1 - operational improvement on an existing unit

Several control schemes were proposed in order to improve the process behaviour under disturbance. These are shown in approximate form in Figure 2.

Modelling approach

The system was modelled in PSE's gPROMS package, using a detailed dynamic tray-by-tray model for the distillation columns. The model was tuned to existing plant operational data, using gPROMS' parameter estimation capabilities, in order accurately to quantify parameters such as tray efficiency and heat transfer coefficients.

Once a suitably accurate model of the process had been built, the existing control scheme was added and the model tested for response against various disturbances. Having established that the existing control scheme and tunings were not capable of restoring stability under these disturbances, a dynamic optimisation was performed (using the same input disturbances) in order to establish the optimal control tunings. This showed some improvements over the existing settings.

Figure 2. Control scheme alternatives

Control scheme alternatives

Having proven that there was scope for improvement in the control system, several alterative proposed control schemes were added to the model. A dynamic optimisation was set up which included integer (discrete) selection between the alternative control schemes. This was configured to allow the dynamic optimisation to select the best control scheme to handle the disturbances, and to ensure that only one scheme was selected rather than a combination of the schemes.

Result

The results of the dynamic optimisation not only identified a better control scheme than the existing one, but provided optimal tunings (gain and integral action) for each of the controllers. The improved control scheme meant that for the first time it was possible to control the system properly during normal operation.

By including alternative optimisation variables in subsequent runs - for example, column diameter - it was shown that significant improvements could be made in the design of such plants that would lead to improved inherent controllability.

In addition to the results obtained here it would also be possible to use the dynamic model to, for example, optimise start-up procedure, or investigate optimal transition policy between different modes of operation.

Project 2 - process and control improvements for new design

Having built a detailed predictive model of the system, it was possible to use it to design more economic units for the future, with better controllability characteristics.

A particular feature of the project described here was the use of integer optimisation to determine the optimal locations of the Column I feed and side draw locations, while simultaneously optimising the values of other "continuous" variables such as the column diameters.

Objectives

The objective was to design the distillation system and its control system at minimum total annualised cost. It was necessary that:

the unit was capable of feasible operation over the whole of a given time horizon in the face of disturbances in the feed flow rate and composition
the solution satisfied composition specifications on the various column product streams
the column diameters calculated would be sufficient to avoid flooding in either column, and ensure that entrainment limits were observed.

This required the simultaneous determination of the optimal process design and the optimal control design, by calculating optimal values for the following integer (discrete) and continuous variables:

locations of the feed and draw-off trays in Column I (discrete decisions)
the column diameters, reboiler heat duties and flow rates of the draw-off stream to Column I and the return stream back to Column II (continuous decisions)
tuning parameters - gain and reset - of all control loops (continuous decisions).

In principle, other discrete decisions could also have been considered, such as the optimal return tray location in Column I and the numbers of trays in the two columns. However the client asked for these to be excluded.

Modelling approach

The modelling approach was essentially the same as that used before, with the optimised control scheme from the previous project (above) implemented. However it was necessary to providing a number of potential locations for feed tray and side draw locations for Column I, shown in Figure 3, from which the optimiser could choose the optimal combination.

The optimisation used an economic objective function that includes both capital and operating cost, to find the lowest annualised cost for the system.

Results

A summary of the results is shown in Table 1. It can be seen that the optimiser has changed the feed and draw tray location significantly, and has altered the relative sizes of Column I and II.

The total annualised cost of the re-designed unit is 18% lower than the existing Shell design. These savings are achieved by drawing more product B from Column I, resulting in a smaller Column I, with the size of Column II increased correspondingly. The reduced capital cost and reboiler duty for Column I easily outweighs the increases in these quantities for Column II.

The resulting optimal solution is about 18% cheaper than the existing design, indicating both the benefits of considering process design and process control simultaneously and the viability of using this MIO technology for solving complex, industrial problems.

The optimal solution was found on the fourth iteration of the integer optimisation loop. In fact the MIO algorithm was able to find three structures (second, fourth and eighth solutions) that are cheaper than the original structure. If optimisation had not been used, it would have been necessary to evaluate 68 alternative combinations in order to achieve this result.

Table 1 - existing vs. optimal design

The study showed that if such a simultaneous optimisation approach had been used when the distillation system was originally designed, not only would the total annualised cost of operation been substantially lower, but the operability difficulties experienced during its operation woul

more see >>

Methylene Chloryde, Isopropyl Alcohol (IPA), Acetone, Tryethylammine Diethylammine Start-up Pharmaceutical Distillation Plants

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sat, 7 Mar 2009 21:32:00 +0700

It's very well completed the start-up of CMG's solvents distillation plants for an anti-biotic pharmaceutical company in IRAN.
The plants are the following:

Continuous distillation of Methylene Chloryde
Continuous distillation of Isopropyl Alcohol (IPA)
Batch/continuous distillation of Acetone (95%)
Continuous distillation of Acetone (99%)
Recovery-distillation of TEA-DEA (Try ethyl ammine, Di ethyl ammine)
Dehydration of Methylene Chloryde

In the following picture the distillation units

In order to design the distillation plants, CMG used the most upgrade distillation design program, and the obtained results of the laboratory tests made by the research centre Polo Tecnologico La Magona. CMG has been part of this technological research centre
The CMG supply is a turn-key comprising distillation units, complete engineering of the storage tanks farm, of the piping and of complete carpentry and pipe-racks. Following the picture of one of the 3d drawing of the whole project.

The goodness of the products of distillation units is confirmed by the client with its request for new distillation unit for other mixtures of solvents.
Following some technical data of the distillation units:
1- Methylene Chloryde Unit
Specification of Feed Flow-rate 1000 Kg/h, recovery 95-99%
Composition of FEED, Distillate, Bottom column product (%w)

	FEED	DISTILLATE	BOTTOM COLUMN
METHYLENE CHLORYDE	87,74	99,77	4.34
METHANOL	0,06	0,02	19,56
PIVALIC ACID	8,7	-----	60,79
IPA	1,2	0,05	3,28
DMAC	1,1	-----	19,56
WATER	0,5	0,16	0,89
OTHER	0.6	-----	10,77

The distillation is the extractive type. The most important obtained results are: distillate Methylene Chloryde without Methanol (just traces) and the elimination of bad odour from the bottom column's product.The complete dehydration of Methylene Chloryde is done using molecular sieve and regeneration by hot nitrogen.

2- Distillation di Isopropil-alcol (IPA)
Specification :Feed Flow-rate 1100 Kg/h, recovery del 97%
Composition of FEED, Distillate, Bottom column product (%w)

	FEED	DISTILLATE	BOTTOM COLUMN
IPA	38.29	79.49	1.8
TEA	1.47	0.02	7.43
WATER	58	13.64	86.6
MIBK	2.2	6.5	0.2
OTHER	0.5	0.1	3.97

3- Distillation di Acetone
Specification : Feed Flow-rate 800 Kg/h, recovery 95-99%
Composition of FEED, Distillate, Bottom column product (%w)

	FEED	DISTILLATE	BOTTOM COLUMN
ACETONE	53.15	99.3	0.99
WATER	44.36	0.48	94.17
DMF	1,26	----	3.18
METHANOL	0.95	0.07	0.94
OTHER	0.28	0.15	0.72

The first distillation unti is a extractive distillation, it permits to split Methanol from Acetone and other solvents. The second distillation unit is a "classical" continuous distillation plant. In order to have the maximum operative flexibility the first distiallation plant can be utilized either in batch configuration or in continuous configuration.

4- Recovery and distillation of TEA - DEA (try ethyl ammine, Diethyl ammine)
Specification: INITIAL FEED =3000-3500 KgComposition of FEED, Distillate, Bottom column product (%w)

	FEED	Solvents after 1° distillation	Before the final distiallation
TEA	25.41	0.13	91.73
IPA	15	59.7	4.07
ACETONE	18.75	---	0.17
MIBK	14.21	10.27	0.14
METHANOL	0.59	1.09	-----
DEA	0.12	---	0.17
WATER	25.31	28.75	3.14
OTHER	0.61	0.61	0.04

Following the process description of TEA, it's a batch procedure.

The salification of initial solution with HCl
Phase separation: the light (organic) phase is sent to thermal oxidation, the acqueous phase is storaged for the successive phase
Distillation to remove residual solvents;
Basification of the residue of distillation using NaOH solution;
Phase separation at about to limit the solubility of water in TEA: heavy (aqueous) phase is sent to thermal oxidation.
Storing of the organic phase, so that we can accumulate enough amount to be distilled;
Distillation to recover TEA.

more info see : http://www.cmgimpianti.com

KL Process Design Group Goes Public and Changes Name to KL Energy Corp.

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sat, 7 Mar 2009 20:54:00 +0700

Rapid City, SD—KL Energy Corp. (OTCBB: KLEG) announced October 8 that it has acquired KL Process Design Group (KLPDG), a leading process design and engineering firm and a pioneer in the commercialization of second generation cellulose-based ethanol (CBE) production.

This acquisition and accompanying funding will allow KL Energy Corp. to develop its second commercial scale CBE production facility.

Ethanol produced from cellulose is an alternative energy source highly-anticipated globally as a means of generating energy production through various waste materials and biomass and therefore does not come into competition with food sources.

In connection with the transaction, $6.1 million in notes made in anticipation of the transaction and held by European institutional investors Fair Energy (through affiliate company Niton Capital) and The Green Fund, were converted into common stock in KL Energy Corp.

KL Energy Corp. (previously KLPDG) was formed early in 2000 to focus on the design and production of bio-ethanol plants, with projects focused on efficient construction, process optimization, and industry leading energy-efficiencies.

Applying their advanced engineering skills and knowledge gained in petrochemical process design, the Company has become a leader in the design and optimization of grain-based ethanol (GBE) plants.

Simultaneously KL worked to design, build and operate the first small commercial scale 2nd generation cellulose-based ethanol (CBE) plant in the United States.

Since January of 2008, the Company has been successfully producing cellulosic ethanol using waste wood as feedstock, at its commercial scale facility near Upton, Wyoming.

The first facility of its kind in the country, the new plant was completely designed, engineered, constructed and is being operated by KL Energy (KL).

The current success is the result of six years of development efforts between KL and the South Dakota School of Mines and Technology.

KL's cellulosic ethanol plant is supplying fuel grade ethanol today, which is being used in traditional and high performance motor-sport applications (ALMS).

KL's "zero radius" design concept technology has proven its adaptability to other biomass feedstock based on the geographic availability of feedstock and local economic drivers.

Randy Kramer, KL Energy's President and Chief Executive Officer and co-founder, said, "We are at a major inflection point for our company, as we transition to the public markets as the leader in engineering, design, and production of cellulose ethanol.

"The interest we have developed not only in the United States, but globally since beginning production at our Upton, WY facility has been astounding.

"As world economies continue searching for feasible alternatives to carbon-based fuels relying on non-food feedstock, we believe KL Energy is a leading solution provider having already proven our technology on a commercial scale.

"Our company has the expertise and experience required to address the needs of the United States and International markets with a wide variety of new projects," continued Mr. Kramer.

Dave Litzen, KL Energy's Vice President of Process Engineering, and co-founder, stated, "We have combined our experience of energy efficient corn based ethanol process design with tried and tested petrochemical optimization and design methodologies as our foundation.

"Concentrating our teams combined multi industry experience on the most economic way to design, build and operate CBE plants we have dramatically reduced the development and implementation time lines and economics, enabling us to offer to the market financially viable commercial scale CBE production today.

"We have established what we believe are the most environmentally friendly methods of extraction and production of cellulose ethanol currently available for commercial implementation."

For more information, call 605-718-0372, Ext. 16.

see related article or website : http://www.klenergycorp.com

INTERACTIVE DESIGN OF MULTICOMPONENT DISTILLATION COLUMNS by Maria Regina Wolf Maciel

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sat, 7 Mar 2009 20:36:00 +0700

Integrating process and operational factors into an overall design strategy requires a deep insight into the multivariable functional relationships which characterize the system so that optimal decisions can be taken. Specifically, multicomponent separations processes highlight these issues because of the abstract nature of the problem which is difficult to interpret. These relate operational states to the associated phase equilibria in an operational phase space which projects an image of the relative enrichment so that the influence of operational and design variables can be assessed.The work reported here presents the development of an approach to interactive computer based design of multistage separation processes and analysis, using projections of the operating line and phase equilibrium relationship into operational subspaces. It is illustrated with reference to ternary systems and demonstrates that it can be used to overcome the intrinsic restrictions of the conventional triangular diagrams which do not emphasize the relationship between vapour and liquid compositions resulting in a loss of important information. Without this facility it is difficult to determine what design decisions are required to improve performance since it is not possible to see the overall fundamental pattern of interactions between the variables at a glance. The objective is to provide a framework which enable the variables in both liquid and vapour phase to be displayed simultaneously. It is shown that this provides a means of identifying features which are crucial in design, particularly the number of stages, feed position, sidestream position and reflux ratio. The general shape of the equilibrium surfaces and the relative positioning of the operating line trajectories in terms of design and operational variables gives very useful picture of the patterns of behaviour as optimal conditions are approached.A modified interpretation of minimum reflux ratio is proposed which takes account of the partial specification of product streams and which constrain the operational trajectories. Because product specifications of multicomponent systems only partially define acceptable compositions, the concept of minimum reflux ratio is therefore not well-defined and is constrained by operational and design factors. The interactive design environment makes it possible to develop heuristic rules which facilitate the rapid identification of characteristic local points in the operational phase space which define the principal factors governing the overall performance as well as determining flexibility and controllability.
source : http://biblioteca.universia.net

Biodiesel and Ethanol Investing

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sun, 1 Mar 2009 22:07:00 +0700

Ethanol Fuel Benefits

Ethanol is a renewable fuel. Renewable fuels are fuels that we can make again and again without depleting valuable resources in the earth. Extracting crude oil from the ground depletes resources from the earth’s crust. The crops we use for ethanol, on the other hand, can be grown, harvested, and grown again every year. This means that we can make ethanol this year, next year, and the year after that by growing corn or other crops. By using renewable fuels, we can preserve the resources that are remaining in the earth - but still get the fuel our economy needs.
Ethanol reduces pollution and greenhouse gas emissions. Ethanol contains a higher percentage of oxygen than traditional petroleum-based gasoline. Because of it, Ethanol burns more completely than petroleum-based gasoline, and does not contribute to global warming like burning petroleum-based fuels does. In fact, using ethanol as a motor fuel reduces greenhouse gas emissions by as much as 46%. Using just 10% ethanol in your gas tank reduces greenhouse gas emissions by up to 19%.
Ethanol does not pollute ground water. Because of ethanol’s chemical structure, ethanol phase separates when it comes into contact with water. This makes it very safe for the environment because ethanol is biodegradable. It also means that ethanol will not pollute ground water like many other potential fuel sources could.
Ethanol Is Cheaper To Make Than Gasoline. Ethanol costs about 75 per gallon to make. Gasoline cost about $1.60 per gallon to refine. It only costs about $30 to convert a car to be a flex fuel vehicle, but doing it can save hundreds of gallons of fuel per year.
Ethanol Is Easy To Switch To. Ethanol can use today’s vehicles, today’s fuel distribution infrastructure, and allows us to leverage today’s technologies in order to use these renewable resources. We can blend ethanol with traditional gasoline in grades from E10 to E85. Even hybrid vehicles can run off of ethanol.
Ethanol supports local farmers. Ethanol is produced in local markets from available renewable resources, such as corn and sugar cane. When you purchase ethanol, your money stays nearby, going to local farmers that produced the crops used and the refineries that produced the fuel. But when you buy gasoline, some of each dollar boosts oil companies’ record profits - and the rest goes overseas.
Ethanol reduces our dependence on foreign oil. About 45% of all of American oil consumption is used as gasoline fuel for consumer vehicles. By using ethanol as a substitute and/or additive to petroleum-based gasoline, ethanol helps to reduce regional dependence on imported oil and petroleum products. We import millions of barrels of oil and millions of gallons of refined gasoline every day. By switching to ethanol and ethanol blends, we can continue to grow our economy while reducing our addiction to foreign oil.
Ethanol can be made from nearly anything. Though ethanol was first made decades ago, the technologies used in today’s ethanol industry are still in their infancy. Most of today’s ethanol production is made from corn and sugar. The technology for using waste products, such as unusable portions of crops, to produce cellulosic ethanol is on the horizon - and it will completely revolutionize the way we fuel our cars.

Ethanol fuel may harm lungs

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sun, 1 Mar 2009 22:04:00 +0700

Agençe France-Presse

Could alternatives to fossil fuels increase air pollution? (Image: iStockphoto)

Ethanol-fuelled vehicles could contribute to more illnesses and deaths from respiratory disease than petrol-powered cars and trucks, says US research.

This is because some ethanol blends can increase atmospheric ozone levels, the researchers say, a key ingredient of smog.

If all cars and trucks were replaced by vehicles fuelled by ethanol, deaths related to increased ozone would rise by about 4% in the US, according to the study in the journal Environmental Science and Technology.

"Our results show that a high blend of ethanol poses an equal or greater risk to public health than [petrol], which already causes significant health damage," says Associate Professor Mark Jacobson, an atmospheric scientist at Stanford University and lead author of the study.

The study raises questions about ethanol, a fuel produced from corn or other crops, which many hope will reduce oil dependency and air pollution.

Jacobson ran computer tests simulating atmospheric conditions in the US in 2020, when ethanol-fuelled cars are expected to be widely available.

His simulation focused on Los Angeles because of its poor air quality and dense population, he says.

He programmed the computer to run air-quality simulations comparing two scenarios: one where all cars, trucks, motorcycles and other vehicles are powered by petrol and another where the same fleet is powered by E85, a blend of 85% ethanol and 15% petrol.

"In some parts of the country, E85 significantly increased ozone, a prime ingredient of smog," Jacobson says.

Asthma, weakened immune systems and other health conditions have been linked to even small increases in ozone in the atmosphere.

The World Health Organization estimates that 800,000 people die each year from ozone and other chemicals in smog.

E85 could boost US asthma-related emergency department visits by 770 a year and the number of respiratory-related hospitalisations by 990, the study says.

In Los Angeles, there would be 650 more hospitalisations and 1200 more asthma-related emergency visits in 2020 under the E85 model.

Ethanol fuel

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sun, 1 Mar 2009 21:56:00 +0700

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Jump to: navigation, search

The 2005 Volvo FlexiFuel S40 was one of the first E85 flexible fuel cars produced by a Swedish automaker. The Volvo FlexiFuel is now offered on the European market.

E95 trial bus operating in São Paulo, Brazil.

Information on a pump in California.

Renewable energy

Biofuel Biomass Geothermal Hydro power Solar power Tidal power Wave power Wind power

Anhydrous ethanol (ethanol with less than 1% water) can be blended with gasoline in varying quantities up to pure ethanol (E100), and most gasoline engines will operate well with mixtures of 10% ethanol (E10).^[1] Most cars on the road today in the U.S. can run on blends of up to 10% ethanol,^[2] and the use of 10% ethanol gasoline is mandated in some cities where harmful levels of auto emissions are possible.

Ethanol can be mass-produced by fermentation of sugar or by hydration of ethylene (ethene CH₂=CH₂) from petroleum and other sources. Current interest in ethanol mainly lies in bio-ethanol, produced from the starch or sugar in a wide variety of crops, but there has been considerable debate about how useful bio-ethanol will be in replacing fossil fuels in vehicles. Concerns relate to the large amount of arable land required for crops,^[3] as well as the energy and pollution balance of the whole cycle of ethanol production.^[4]^[5] Recent developments with cellulosic ethanol production and commercialization may allay some of these concerns.^[6]

According to the International Energy Agency, cellulosic ethanol could allow ethanol fuels to play a much bigger role in the future than previously thought.^[7] Cellulosic ethanol offers promise as resistant cellulose fibers, a major and universal component in plant cells walls, can be used to generate ethanol. Dedicated energy crops such as switchgrass are also promising cellulose sources that can be produced in many

Distillation Water Treatment

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Mon, 23 Feb 2009 00:18:00 +0700

Distillation is one of the oldest methods of water
treatment and is still in use today though not commonly as
a home treatment method. It can effectively remove many
contaminants from drinking water, including bacteria,
inorganic and many organic compounds.

Note that home water treatment is considered only a
temporary solution. The best solutions to a contaminated
drinking water problem are to either end the practices
causing the contamination or change water sources.
Distillation is a process that relies on evaporation to
purify water. Contaminated water is heated to form steam.
Inorganic compounds and large non-volatile organic
molecules do not evaporate with the water and are left
behind. The steam then cools and condenses to form
purified water.

Distillation is most effective in removing inorganic
compounds such as metals (iron and lead) and nitrate;
hardness (calcium and magnesium); and particulates from a
contaminated water supply. The boiling process also kills
microorganisms such as bacteria and some viruses. The
effectiveness of distillation in removing organic
compounds varies, depending on such chemical
characteristics of the organic compound as solubility and
boiling point. Organic compounds that boil at temperatures
greater than the boiling point of water (some pesticides)
can be effectively removed from the water. Organic
compounds that boil at temperatures lower than the boiling
point of water (ex., benzene and toluene) will be
vaporized along with the water. If these harmful compounds
are not removed prior to condensation, they will
recontaminate the purified product.

Distillation Units

Distillation units or stills generally consist of a
boiling chamber, where the water enters, is heated and
vaporized; condensing coils or chamber, where the water
is cooled and converted back to liquid water; and a
storage tank for purified water. (Vis. 1)

Distillation units are usually installed as point-
of-use (POU) systems. They are generally placed at the
kitchen faucet and used to purify water intended for
(drinking and cooking purposes only. Stills vary in size,
depending on the amount of purified water they produce.
The production rate varies from 3 to 11 gallons per day.
Home stills can be located on the counter or floor, or
attached to the wall.

Models can be fully or partially automated, or
manual. Some stills have columns or volatile gas vents to
eliminate organic chemicals with boiling points lower
than water, thus ensuring uncontaminated water.

Operation, Maintenance and Cost

As with all home water treatment systems, stills
require some level of regular maintenance to keep the
unit operating properly. Unevaporated pollutants remaining
in the boiling chamber need to be regularly flushed to the
septic or sewer system. Even with regular removal of the
residual water that contains unevaporated pollutants, a
calcium and magnesium, scale will collect at the bottom of
the boiling chamber. This scale eventually needs to be
removed, usually by hand scrubbing or by an application of
acid.

Heating water to form steam requires energy. This
means that operating costs for distillation units are
generally higher than those of other forms of home water
treatment. The distillation process also removes oxygen
and some trace metals from water. Some people claim this
leaves the water tasting flat.

This information comes from Michigan State University
Extension bulletin WQ 22, Distillation for Home Water
Treatment

more photos of ethanol distillation

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sat, 21 Feb 2009 12:29:00 +0700

External Circulation Concentrator(Alcohol Can Be Recycted) (WZ-Series)

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sat, 21 Feb 2009 12:25:00 +0700

Product Description

The equipment is widely used in liquid material concentration concentrating of medicine, chemical industry and foodstuff as well as recovery of organic solvent Especially suitable for thermal sentitive materials such as alcohol extracting liquid, fermentation liquid, fruit juice and milk under vacuum condition making low temperature continuous concentration.It has much better effectiveness in various and small quantity materials.

Features:
1.Alcohol recycling:Strong recycling capacity, adopt vacuum concentrating flow, the production rate has improved 5-10 times than the old types, reduced 30%of energy cost.It has the character that small investment but big profit.
2.Concentrating materials:The equipment adopts the style that combining externall heating cycling and vacuum vaporizing.Vaporizing speed is very fast, concentrating gravity can reach to 1.3.The liquid materials are concentrated under he completely sealing condition and there is no foaming.The liquid concentrated by this equipment has the features that no pollution and strong flavor.And it is easy to clean (cleaning can be done as soon as opening the upper and lower covers ).The machine is easy to operate, covers small areas, the heater and vaporizer adopt the stainless steel heat keeping structure, the shell is made of stainless steel and the surface is mirror or matted process.

Alcohol Distill Machinery(WZJN-SERIES)

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sat, 21 Feb 2009 12:16:00 +0700

Product Description

The equipment is applicable to the alcohol recycle and cream recycle of the industries such as pharmacy plants, starch, chemical industry, foodstuff and dairy products, and it can be used in liquid conc entration of small quantity and various materials.

Features: 1This machine is a newly developed product of our company, which combines medicinal liquid condensation and alcohol rectification. Through scientific and technical process, the condensation of medicinal liquid and the retrieval of highly condensed alcohol can be completed at the same time. The investment of this machine is only half of the cost of conventional technology, energy consumption 60%, which proves that it is an energy saving equipment, with small investment and high retrieving capacity. It is widely used in pharmaceutical, brewery, refinement chemistry, and dairy industry.
2. This machine adopts the mode of external circulation and negative pressure evaporation, thus it is characterized by speed evaporation and high condensation ratio, up to 1: 4. It is easy to operate and beautiful in outward appearance, with the internal parts that contact with medicinal liquid polished
3. This machine is easy to operate and cleaning, with several functions combined together. It is the equipment of first choice for retrieving organic and in accord with the GMP standard.

Model: WZJN-SERIES

more information: http://www.made-in-china.com

Distillation Design by Henry Z. Kister

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Wed, 18 Feb 2009 21:19:00 +0700

* Publisher: McGraw-Hill Professional
* Number Of Pages: 710
* Publication Date: 1992-02-01
* ISBN-10 / ASIN: 0070349096
* ISBN-13 / EAN: 9780070349094
* Binding: Hardcover

Product Description:

This text provides thorough coverage of design principles for distillation processes. It contains an up-to-date presentation of process and equipment design procedures, highlights limitations of some design methods, and offers guidance on how to overcome them.

Investigating the Need of a Pre-Concentrator Column for the Isopropyl Alcohol Dehydration Process

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Wed, 18 Feb 2009 21:05:00 +0700

Saiful Arifin and I-Lung Chien. National Taiwan University of Science and Technology, No. 43, Keelung Road, Sec. 4, Taipei, 106, Taiwan

The design and control of a complete heterogeneous azeotropic distillation column system using cyclohexane (CyH) as entrainer has been presented by Chien, et al. (2004). In that study, the feed composition to the heterogeneous azeotropic column is assumed to be near to the isopropyl alcohol (IPA) and water azeotropic composition (IPA at 69 mol% in that paper). In that study, two-column system containing a heterogeneous azeotropic column and a recovery column was recommended. However, in a typical waste IPA stream in semi-conductor industry where IPA is used as a cleaning agent, the water content is much higher than 31 mol%. Taking a typical waste IPA stream with equal molar of IPA and water as an example, the two-column system as proposed in Chien, et al. (2004) will result in very high recycle flow from the second recovery column to the first heterogeneous azeotropic column. This can easily be seen from the conceptual material balance lines in Figure 7 of Chien, et al. (2004). The main reason is because the line drawn from the points of fresh feed and the organic reflux is too close to the point of ternary azeotropic composition of IPA/H2O/CyH. Thus, the top vapor flow rate will be much larger than the flow rate of the bottom IPA product stream.

An obvious design to solve the above problem is to include a pre-concentrator column in the upstream of the heterogeneous azeotropic column to concentrate the fresh feed composition to 69 mol% IPA. In this way, the previous conclusions in Chien, et al. (2004) can be applied. However, the overall process will include three columns, thus the Total Annual Cost (TAC) may not be competitive to other designs. An alternative process design is to still using two columns with a column (C-2 in Figure 1 below) acting as both the pre-concentrator column and the recovery column. This design flowsheet can be seen in Figure 1 and was studied by Ryan and Doherty (1989) for the ethanol/water/benzene system. In their study, they concluded that this two-column system has lower capital costs but higher operating costs than the three-column system so that the total annualized cost is about the same for both systems. However, they also cautioned that no generalizations should be made from this one example to other systems.

In this study, the IPA dehydration system for fresh feed with equal molar of IPA and water is investigated. The TAC is used as the objective function to be minimized for the above two alternative process design flowsheets. A comparison of the TACs will be made for the optimized two systems. Because feed composition of the waste IPA stream can vary widely, the overall control strategy for these two alternative design are critically important in rejecting this feed composition disturbance. The operability of these two process systems under proper overall control strategy will also be compared. Aspen Plus and Aspen Dynamics are used in the above design and control studies.

Literature Cited

Chien, I. L.; Zeng, K. L.; Chao, H. Y. Design and Control of a Complete Heterogeneous Azeotropic Distillation Column System. Ind. Eng. Chem. Res. 2004, 43, 9, 2160-2174.

Ryan, P. J.; Doherty, M. F. Design/Optimization of Ternary Heterogeneous Azeotropic Distillation Sequences. AIChE J. 1989, 35, 1592-1601.

Keywords: Isopropyl Alcohol Dehydration, Heterogeneous Azeotropic Distillation, Design and Control.
source http://www.aiche.confe.com

Distillation for alcohol

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sun, 15 Feb 2009 02:06:00 +0700

A new distillation equipment for alcohol which consists mainly of a brief concentrating column A, a concentrating column B, a compressor C to compress alcohol vapor generated in column B and water evaporator D heated by the compressed alcohol vapor is developed and this especially fits for a distillation source of a glue like solution obtained by alcohol fermentation because steam generated in the water evaporator D is directly blown into the solution in the concentrating column A.

How To Distill Ethanol or Grain Alcohol

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sun, 15 Feb 2009 02:01:00 +0700

Ethanol is also called ethyl alcohol or grain alcohol. It's made from a fermented mixture of corn, yeast, sugar, and water. The resulting alcohol is 100 to 200 proof (200 proof is pure alcohol).

In addition to use in the lab, ethanol is a popular fuel alternative and gasoline additive. Because it is flammable, ethanol can be prohibitively expensive to ship, so it may make sense to distill your own. Anyone can have a still, but be advised you may need to get a permit in order to make ethanol.
Difficulty: Easy
Time Required: 3 - 10 days, sometimes longer
Here's How:

1. If you are starting with whole corn, you first need to convert the cornstarch into sugar by 'sprouting' the corn. Place the corn in a container, cover it with warm water, and drape a cloth over the container to prevent contamination and conserve heat. Ideally, the container will have a slowly draining hole at the bottom. Add warm water from time to time as the liquid level falls. Maintain the setup ~3 days or until the corn has sprouts about 2 inches long.
2. Allow the sprouted corn to dry. Then grind it into meal. Alternatively, start with cornmeal. Other grains can be prepared in much the same way (e.g. rye mash).
3. Mash or mush is made by adding boiling water to the corn meal. The mash is kept warm to start the fermentation process. Yeast is added, if available (half pound yeast per 50 gallons of mash, for example), and sugar (variable recipe). With yeast, fermentation takes about 3 days. Without yeast, fermentation could require more than 10 days. The mash is ready to 'run' once it stops bubbling. The mash has been converted into carbonic acid and alcohol. It is called 'wash' or 'beer' or 'sour mash'.
4. The wash is placed into a cooker, which has a lid that is pasted shut, so that it has a seal which can be blown off should internal pressure become too great. At the top of the cooker, there is a copper pipe, or 'arm' that projects to one side and tapers down from a 4-5 inch diameter to the same diameter as the 'worm' (1 to 1-1/4 inch). The 'worm' could be made by taking a 20 ft length of copper tubing, filling it with sand and stopping the ends, and then coiling it around a fence post.
5. The sand prevents the tubing from kinking while being coiled. Once the worm is formed, the sand is flushed out of the tube. The worm is placed in a barrel and sealed to the end of the arm. The barrel is kept full of cold, running water, to condense the alcohol. Water runs in the top of the barrel and out an opening at the bottom. A fire is maintained under the cooker to vaporize the alcohol in the wash.
6. The ethanol vaporizes at 173°F, which is the target temperature for the mixture. The spirit will rise to the top of the cooker, enter the arm, and will be cooled to the condensation point in the worm. The resulting liquid is collected at the end of the worm, traditionally into glass jars. This fluid will be translucent, and about the color of dark beer.
7. The very first liquid contains volatile oil contaminants in addition to alcohol. After that, liquid is collected. The containers of liquid collected from over the wash are called 'singlings'. Liquid collected toward the end of this run is called 'low wine'. Low wine can be collected and returned to the still to be cooked again. The initial collections are higher proof than those collected as the distillation progresses.
8. The singlings tend to have impurities and require double-distillation, so once the low wine has been run to the point where a tablespoon or so thrown on a flame won't burn (too low proof), the heat is removed from the still and the cooker is cleaned out. The liquid remaining in the still, the 'backings' or 'slop', can be recovered and poured over new grain (and sugar, water, and possibly malt) in a mash barrel for future distillations. Discard mash after no more than eight uses.
9. The singlings are poured into the cooker and the still is returned to operation. The initial collections can approach pure alcohol (200 proof), with the end collections, using the flash test on the flame, at about 10 proof.
10. The desired proof depends on the application. The highest proof usually obtained from a still is 190 proof. For using alcohol as a fuel alternative, for example, addition purification with a sieve may be required to obtain 200 proof ethanol.

Tips:

1. If you live in the United States, a permit may be required in order to legally distill ethanol.
2. Stills traditionally were operated close to a water source, like a stream or river, because the cool water was used to condense the alcohol in the tubing (called the 'worm')
3. Stills needed to have removable tops, so that they wouldn't explode when pressure built up from heating the mash.

What You Need:

* 25 lb corn meal or 25 lb shelled whole corn
* 100 lb sugar (sucrose)
* 100 gallons water
* 6 oz yeast
article source http://chemistry.about.com/od/chemistryhowtoguide/ht/ethanol.htm

PROCESS FOR THE EVAPORATION OF VOLATILE ALCOHOLS AND SULPHUR IN THE COURSE OF BLACK LIQUOR EVAPORATION

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sun, 15 Feb 2009 01:09:00 +0700

A process is provided for reducing the emission of volatile alcohols and sulphur compounds during the evaporation of black liquor in several effects in the sulphate cellulose process. The liquor in those effects which are working with the most diluted liquor is evaporated in two or more steps on the same pressure level. The liquor is carried through the steps in series, the vapours obtained from these steps are condensed and at least a part of the condensates obtained are reintroduced into the process or purified by means of distillation.

ethanol distillation

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sun, 15 Feb 2009 00:25:00 +0700

Distillation means taking the fermented ethanol and water mixture and adding heat to separate them -- typically in a still. Since ethanol evaporates faster than water, the ethanol rises through a tube, collects and condenses into another container. The water is left behind.

There are a lot of different kinds of stills, including pot stills, vacuum stills, reflux stills and solar stills, which differ in setup and the way you heat your product. The two most widely used in-home ethanol production units are solar stills and reflux stills. Designs for all of these can be found online, and there are as many different variations for all of them as human innovation will allow. If you have any doubts about the safety or credibility of a particular still, do not attempt to use that design.
Copper stills.
Marcus Brooke/Getty Images
Distillation is really the same process, whether you're working with large or small quantities.

One of the simplest and most Earth-friendly distilleries is a solar still. As its name implies, a solar still uses the sun's energy to heat and separate the product. This is the most Earth-friendly design because it doesn't use any other type of fuel, such as wood for a flame or coal for electricity, to make your fuel. The downside to this still design is that it can be inconsistent. It depends entirely on how much sun you get around your house -- and it also makes fairly weak ethanol.

Reflux stills are the most common and efficient stills used to make ethanol at home. Reflux stills usually use electricity or natural gas for heating. In the past, reflux stills used several increasingly smaller boiling pots to separate ethanol from water into increasingly concentrated forms. Now, reflux stills use one boiling pot and a complex reflux column which is broken down into smaller spaces to imitate other boiling pots. It takes up less space and provides for a more pure product.

Prior to distilling ethanol, you'll need to have a permit. Keep reading to find out how to get one.

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