I wanted to model an ethanol plant for my railroad but i dont kno what theyy use besides grain silos, covered hoppers of corn, and tank cars of ethanol. Im clueless on this topic and need help. Thanks.
Don’t forget large storage tanks for ethanol besides tank cars, too. I know there’s a lot of piping and some large stacks. I don’t know very many details, either, but that’s what I know from driving past one. Hope this helps even a tad!
The staff at MR built an ethanol plant on the new WSOR extension of their MR&T layout, they had articles on it during 2007 (can’t remember exactly which issues though…)
It was actually the April 2008 issue.
OK…my bad. Thanx for clearing that up!
The spent grain is shipped out as animal feed (DDG - dried distiller’s grain).
Dave H.
Modern ethanol plants are typically quite large in physical size. The process begins with the unloading of the grains from the hopper cars, usually in a dumping shed to protect employees from the environment, and to keep the grain clean. It is crushed and the sugars are fermented. The DDG’s are shipped out to farms, in very large hoppers similar to plastic pellet cars (but with gravity gates). Newer and larger plants typically have lots of storage track to stage empty cars. Typically two to four (or more) tracks are situated next to loading racks, depending on the actual location and any potential size limitations. Also, tankcars of gasoline are shipped in to use as a denaturant - technically, until the ethanol is denatured, it is still grain whiskey fit for consumption. This is not because gasoline engines can’t run on 100% ethanol (they need at least 10-15% gasoline), but the rules and taxes for producing and transporting industrial quantites of whiskey prevent it.
There is an ethanol distillery in Clatskanie Oregon that is just now starting up. It uses corn to distill into alcohol. The company is Cascade Grain. There are some photos on thier site www.Cascadegrain.com you might check out. They also have a chop nose GP9 as the switcher.
The grain arrives in 100+ car unit trains.There is about a 20 hour turnaround for the trains.
Most of the large ethanol plants do not use rail trainsportation to move corn to them. They are ‘sized’ based on the existing corn production around them. Most of the corn is trucked in with a local elevator company being the ‘middleman’ to provide a smooth flow of product to the plant. In Northern Iowa/Southern Minnesota, typical new installations are in the 100-120 million gallon production size. Rail is used to ship out the ethanol and DDG(Dried Distillers Grain or ‘spent’ corn’). I am sure there are some that receive covered hoppers of corn, but I am not aware of any.
The basic plant has corn storage, the ‘still’, and dryers/storage for the DDG. In general. an ethanol plant can be quite large, and produce 80 cars/week of ethanol. The DDG is usually shipped out on the larger 4 bay covered hoppers, and is used for multiple things(like animal feed, for example). Other items shipped into the plant are ‘yeast’, needed for process. Once the 200 proof ethanol is produced, it is mixed with fuel to cut it down to 170 proof(85%) for shipping in the tank cars. The above is typical of ethanol plants in the ‘corn belt’, and other locations may differ. Sometimes the plants production can be limited by the local ‘water table’ as they can use up a lot of water in the production.
Jim
I tried planting one on my Seaboard and Western Virginia Railway but the soil conditions were not right and it died!
There is a great diagram and details about an Ethanol plant in the new book “Industries along the Track 3”. I thought it was very useful, I will be using it on my future layout.
John
It ought to prove interesting as the size of one will be since they are building a new production plant near me.(anyone heard of the bio-town USA project in Reynolds, Ind.?) I know CSX will have the rail rights since it is the closest line serving the area, Possibly the TPW too. There are also quite a few grain elevators in the area, and they are just chomping at the bit to supply it when it gets going.
Wow they really do have some great overhead pictures of the plant on their site. Looks like a good industry to model (ponders an ethanol plant in Georgia). Jamie