PESCO designs and builds Ethanol and Biodiesel plants.
Ethanol Production Systems
The principals of PESCO have built and operated several ethanol production facilities since 1980.
Luke Staengl and his staff designed, built, owned and operated three ethanol plants under two different corporations: Floyd Agricultural Energy Corporation (FAEC LTD) and Bio-Regional Energy Corporation (B-REAL, Inc), both located in Floyd, Virginia.
At peak production, the two companies processed and sold over 12 million gallons per year of anhydrous fuel ethanol which was blended with gasoline in service stations such as Racetrack, Wilco, Citgo, and others throughout the Mid-Atlantic states of the USA.
The companies were in business from 1980 to 1992, after which falling crude oil prices and low gasoline rack prices forced the companies to go into chemical recycling.
Luke Staengl, president of PESCO, was also president of Floyd Ag., Bio-Regional Energy Associates, Sunshine Energy Inc., and the Virginia Ethanol Association.
At peak production over 70 people worked at the three ethanol plants.
The waste water from the ethanol process was treated in a novel high rate anaerobic digester, an Up-flowing Anaerobic Sludge Blanket digester (UASB). UASB reactors were first designed at a Dutch university as an efficient way to deal with low-solids high BOD waste streams such as those from distilleries, canneries and other food processing plants. The principle is that floating blankets of granules allow higher surface to volume ratios for shorter residence times and higher efficiency.
PESCO has the experience and capability to design and build complete ethanol plants for you. We also specialize in design and construction of package ethanol distillation systems, as well as molecular sieve to produce anhydrous ethanol. We are part of a consortium which can handle all the aspects – including waste water treatment.
PESCO ETHANOL EXPERIENCE, PROJECTS & REFERENCES
The principals of PESCO have been involved With ethanol production since 1980. Luke Staengl and his staff designed, built, owned and operated 3 ethanol plants under 2 different corporations, Floyd Agricultural Energy Corporation (FAEC LTD) and Bio-Regional Energy Corporation (B-REAL, Inc), in Floyd, Virginia.
-
The amount of ethanol processed by these companies and sold as anhydrous fuel was over 12 million gallons per year. This anhydrous ethanol was blended with gasoline and sold throughout the Mid-Atlantic states of the USA
-
The plants made Ethanol from industrial waste sugars and starches
-
They were built of Stainless Steel, and included state of the art automation
-
The plants included modern high rate anaerobic waste treatment systems which generated methane gas and liquid fertilizer which fertilized the surrounding fields.
-
The plants included highly efficient molecular sieves which removed the final 5% of water without the use of benzene or hexane.
The companies were in business from 1980 to 1992, after which falling crude oil prices and low gasoline rack prices forced the companies to go into chemical recycling.
References on previous ethanol projects:
Michael Ford, President, PFM Corporation, Houston, Texas. Phone: 713 692 8252, Mobile: (713) 828-0644 Fax: 713 699 2684.
Mike Ford bought up to 12 million gallons per year of anhydrous ethanol from FAEC Ltd, and B-REAL Inc. from 1983 – 1992, which he blended with gasoline for gasoline retail chains such as Racetrack, Wilco, Citco.
Earl Spruill, President of Western Energy, Roanoke, Virginia. Phone: 540 774-7106, (540) 375-6501, Fax: 540 774-1677. Earl Spruill purchased up to 3 million gallons per year of anhydrous fuel alcohol from FAEC, Ltd. And from B-REAL Inc. from 1984 to 1991.
Bob Farmer, President of Legacy Chemicals, Baton Rouge, LA, Phone: 225 635 1700 Bob Farmer’s company’s purchased several million gallons of industrial ethanol from companies owned and operated by PESCO’s principals.
Biodiesel Plants
The PESCO team has many years of experience designing and building bio-fuel plants. This experience has been primarily in alcohols and methane plants, but recently PESCO has entered the field of Bio-diesel, which is a simpler technology but shares many common elements with the alcohol plants PESCO principals have designed, built and operated.
Bio-diesel Production Process
1. Feed Oil Dehydration
The incoming oil usually contains water which would inhibit the esterification reaction. Therefore the first process module is a forced circulation evaporator which removes the water via evaporation. This is a stainless steel unit.
2. Acid Catalysis
An acid catalysis system will be used to convert free fatty acids (FFAs) to methyl esters (biodiesel). High FFA feedstocks will be pre-processed in this system to reduce the FFA content to levels acceptable for the base catalyzed processing unit. The unit will consist of a mix tank, 2 plug flow reactors, as well as. Acid will be added to the oil in an appropriate amount to convert the FFAs to methyl esters. The resulting oil product will be fed to the base catalyzed trans-esterification reactors.
3. Trans-esterification
Low FFA oil feed stocks, and pre-treated feed stocks will be converted to biodiesel in a two-stage, trans-esterification process. The reaction units will be two continuous flow, plug flow reactors. Alcohol (a co-reactant), and alkali base will be added to the reactors to catalyze the reaction. The first reactor will convert ~80% of the oil to biodiesel. Then there will be a separation step, where the biodiesel is separated from water and glycerol that is formed during the reaction by settling or centrifugation. The oil will then be fed to the second CSTR, where the reaction will proceed to 98+ % completion.
4, 5 & 6. Separation of Products
The products from the trans-esterification step will be fed to a series of separation steps which will remove and purify the remaining alcohol in the product, and will separate the biodiesel from glycerol formed during the reaction. There will be a washing step for the bio-diesel, and a distillation step for the water and alcohol. The glycerol will be sent to a series of evaporators and will be converted to purified glycerin. The purified biodiesel will be sent to storage.
Computer Control
The entire system will operate on a continuous basis and will be completely automatically controlled by a sophisticated PLC/PC computerized control system. All the process parameters will be monitored, controlled and alarmed by this state of the art computer control system. The system will have a Windows based Man Machine Interface (MMI).
PESCO Bio-diesel Technology is the most advanced in the world. We provide a modern system which combines advanced reaction technologies which can process virgin oil and also yellow grease, with sophisticated byproduct recovery. Our plants will produce high quality Bio-diesel and other high value byproducts at the least cost and with highly efficient technology and equipment.
