High Production Bio-Refinery

Center Ethanol Co., LLC, Sauget, IL

Services

Engineer/Procure/
Construct

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Challenges

• Working with Engineer/Procure/Construct partner Delta-T Corp. and Design/Build partner T.E. Ibberson Co., MC Industrial delivered construction services on the new ethanol production facility, which included 11 buildings for receiving, grain storage, grinding, processing, fermentation, electrical, maintenance, office, DDGS storage and load out on a 57-acre campus.
• The team experienced extremely wet weather during construction—one of the wettest years in recent history. Testing ran from December, 2007 to April, 2008. Significant efforts were needed during hydrotesting of tanks, piping and equipment to protect from freezing.
• Design changes were constant during the construction of the plant. Field staff worked closely with engineering to identify any items that would help with construction schedule and costs. This project also took place in the ethanol “boom,” which meant that equipment and piping materials were in high demand and short supply, which caused longer lead times for equipment and materials

Achievements

Shortening schedules and lowering costs
Mc Industrial utilized modular sections of pipe rack that allowed piping to be installed at grade level then hoisted into place. Insulation was installed on all DD&E vessels in the horizontal position then hoisted into place, eliminating the need for scaffolding around the 100’ tall vessels. This concept was also used on the dryer equipment. These are just two examples of MC Industrial’s commitment to shorten construction schedules while lowering field erection costs.

Excellence in plant design
Plant design allows for receipt of grain by truck and rail and up to 550,000 bushels of corn storage. Owner ships finished product by truck or rail. This ethanol refining process also utilizes a “ring dryer” design that produces a higher quality of Dried Distilled Grain (DDG) than with the normal rotary dryer design. This by-product of ethanol production is then used for livestock feed. Owner also has the ability to ship this product by truck or rail.

Protecting the ‘crown jewel’ 
MC Industrial recognized early in design that the Dehydration, Distillation & Evaporating facility’s wall panels would be penetrated by hundreds of pipes, greatly increasing the difficulty of making the panels water tight. By choosing a sandwich panel system for the roof and walls (in lieu of the standard exterior panel/insulation/liner panel system), the team sped pipe installation without compromising the panel’s structural integrity.

Optimizing building materials
To save money and simplify long-term maintenance, MC Industrial installed the same kind of pre-engineered roofing panels on all campus facilities. In addition to being more economical to construct, the approach requires Center Ethanol maintenance staff to become expert in maintaining only one type of roofing system.

Results

The bio-refinery was completed in 20 months and within budget. Designed to potentially double in capacity, it today processes more than 19 million bushels of corn each year into as much as 54 million gallons (with the capability of expanding to 108 million gallons) of ethanol. 54 million gallons is enough to fill the tanks of 8,000 mid-size sedans a day.

_{Projects completed prior to 2005 were performed by McCarthy.}