Opportunities in ethanol SUPPLYING POWER AND STEAM FOR THE PRODUCTION OF THE FUEL

摘要

Eighty years ago ethanol was big news in the prohibition-era U.S. Now ethanol is again making news, this time as an indigeneous fuel source. While ethanol is not the best fuel to power turbines, ethanol production facilities are ideal locations for cogeneration or Combined Heat and Power (CHP) installations. Dry mill ethanol plants have large, constant, and coincident electric and thermal loads, resulting in a strong technical fit for CHP to efficiently provide both steam and power for these facilities, says Kim Crossman, team leader for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's Combined Heat and Power Partnership. With CHP, ethanol production facilities can realize a reduction of approximately 15% in the energy intensity of the production process. Efficiency gains translate directly into greenhouse gas emissions reductions.