United Ethanol Tested and Licenses Arisdyne's Cavitation System to Enhance Ethanol Yield
Arisdyne and United Ethanol collaborate to refine verification test procedures and demonstrate controlled flow cavitation produces additional gallons daily
- Cleveland-Lorain-Elyria, OH (1888PressRelease) February 22, 2012 - United Ethanol, LLC agreed to license and acquire Arisdyne's patented cavitation system, after extensive test development and testing to prove the plant increased daily ethanol production. With the aid of the National Corn-to-Ethanol Research Center (NCERC), Edwardsville, Illinois, the Ohio State Agriculture Research and Development Center (OARDC), Wooster, Ohio, and consultants from Critical Path Management and TEC, United Ethanol and Arisdyne collaboratively developed a series of tests (Cavitation Analysis and Verification, CAV Tests) to demonstrate with high levels of confidence the yield potential of controlled flow cavitation on identical cavitated and uncavitated slurry materials. Follow-on monitoring of plant performance helps confirm the CAV Test results.
"The United Ethanol installation started as one of several simultaneous trials," noted Bob Shank of Critical Path Management, who is a collaborative consultant representing Arisdyne. "We knew the Arisdyne system worked in other plants; some plants with normal variability increased production in the range of 2-3% in a short period of time."
"We agreed to test the Arisdyne equipment when we met with Bob to discuss improving plant operation some time ago," explained David Cramer, United Ethanol's president and CEO of United Cooperative. "We had worked with and trusted Bob based on his work on the original start up of the Milton plant - and he knew the plant and the team very well."
This yield enhancement principal and design of applying cavitation to slurry materials to liberate recalcitrant starch is well established. Iowa State University did early testing of the concept in the middle of the last decade using ultrasonic cavitation, which is very similar to hydrodynamic, controlled flow cavitation. However, ultrasonic cavitation is not scalable or practical from an energy consumption perspective at production flow rates of 750 to 1500 gpm. Arisdyne's patented devices and processes have applied this high-shear technology to open the corn cell structure efficiently, expose the starches to water and enzymatic activity, and reduce particle size; all contributing to more effective frontend processing. Others offer options for finer grinding, or more intense heat and steam treatments or more aggressive enzymes to liberate/convert more starch to sugars, but at higher processing costs, greater energy consumption, or capital investments requiring space and maintenance. As John Caupert, Managing Director of NCERC, reported earlier, "It's small. It's simple. It's durable."
The ethanol industry is constantly tasked to find new methods and technology to improve the economics of corn and other grain based ethanol, Arisdyne offers a proven technology. "Our main challenge," remarked Fred Clarke, executive vice president of Arisdyne, "is to help plants sort through the technology options and clearly demonstrate the economic value of adopting one technology from the wide spectrum available in all areas of a plant. We believe the front end of a production facility is the most efficient place to start and do so with minimal changes to the downstream processes."
"Ethanol plants see a lot of new ideas every year." noted Bob Shank, "Starting with a trust relationship and building on that trust with honest commitments by everyone to collaborate and conduct sound tests and analysis is what really made the United Ethanol project work."
About United Ethanol
United Ethanol began operating on March 29, 2007, and is producing approximately 2.8 gallons of ethanol, 18 pounds of distiller's grain, and 18 pounds of carbon dioxide from one bushel of corn. On top of generating fuel that helps to reduce our dependence on foreign oil and making the air we breathe cleaner, United Ethanol converts approximately 45,000 bushels of corn per day and produces about 3,900,000 gallons of ethanol per month, further supporting American farmers. In 2010, United Ethanol produced more than 123,000 tons of dry distiller's grain and more than 8,000 tons of wet distiller's grain, both highly valuable feed co-products of ethanol production.
About Arisdyne Systems, Inc.
Arisdyne Systems, Inc. is the leading provider of retrofit equipment and value-creating services for fuel ethanol and biodiesel producers. Arisdyne specializes in designing small footprint devices that utilize controlled hydrodynamic cavitation and applies its cavitation technology to increase yield for ethanol production, to reduce catalyst consumption for biodiesel production, and to change the viscosity of heavy crude oil. For more information, call 216-458-1991, ext. 482 or visit the company website at www.arisdyne.com.
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