Israel – BCR Pilot and Adaptation ProductCall For Proposals

EXPRESSION OF INTEREST

1. Project Participant

Company name: ______VICENTIN SAIC____________

Website: _________ https://www.vicentin.com.ar/______________

Year established: ______1949___________

Type of company: __R&D __ Research institute __ University __ X Other

Stage: __ Seed __ R&D __ Initial revenues __ X Revenue growth

Ownership: __ Public __ X Private __ Governmental __ Other

Number of employees: _1,278 

Number of R&D personnel: _2___

Company contact information:

Address: ____ Torre Nordlink, Av. Madres Plaza 25 de Mayo 3020, Rosario – Santa Fe

Contact person:

Name: _____ DIONISIO MOSCHEN 

Title: ____ Plant Manager _______

Phone: ____ +54 9 348 2641294

Mobile: ____ +54 9 348 2641294

Email: ____ dionisio.moschen@vicentin.com.ar 

2. Organization Background

General Business Description & Area of Expertise

The company’s core business is soybean and sunflower processing. Also, the refining and fractioning of oils. The company also focuses on corn-based bioethanol and biodiesel.

Technology Description (Main Products/Services) and IP

Biodiesel, oilseeds, etc

Targeted Customers

International and domestic market

Sales (over the last 3 years)- if applicable

Current year: _______(large) more than 50 million USD_________

i-1 _________________________

i-2 ________________________

3. General Information

Project Title: Give Value Added to Corn Oil with High-acidity

Technology Sector:

X AgriFood Tech

Fintech BioTech Logistics Smart Mobility/ Smart City Others.......................................................................

Submission Date: __/__/____

Summary:

Add value to corn oil with high acidity that is obtained from the corn-based bioethanol processing plant.

The bioethanol produced in the plant is obtained from the fermentation of corn or sorghum and is used for cutting naphthas (fuel). In addition, as a co-product of this process, wet bitumen, dry burlanda (also known as DDGS) and crude oil are obtained.

The first stage of the process consists of milling the grain, generating meal, which is introduced into the liquefaction section, where it is hydrated and an alpha-amylase enzyme that catalyzes the hydrolysis reaction of the starch is added.

Project Start Date:

Project End Date:

4. Budget:

Total Project Budget: ______Unlimited – depend of the solutions_

Requested IIA grant (% of budget): Up to 50% of R&D, adaptation and pilot cost (For Israeli companies only)

TEC Partner Support:

Human Resources

Economic Resources

Equipment

Work space

Portfolio of clients to validate technologies

Knowledge and experience in the agriculture market

5. Project Outline:

The bioethanol produced in the plant is obtained from the fermentation of corn or sorghum and is used for cutting naphthas (fuel). In addition, as a co-product of this process, wet bitumen, dry burlanda (also known as DDGS) and crude oil are obtained.

The first stage of the process consists of milling the grain, generating meal, which is introduced into the liquefaction section, where it is hydrated and an alpha-amylase enzyme that catalyzes the hydrolysis reaction of the starch is added.

The next stages are saccharification and fermentation, which occur simultaneously. Here the enzyme gluco-amylase (responsible for the generation of glucose) and yeast (a microorganism that converts glucose into ethanol) are incorporated.

After the fermentation, the must is sent to the distillation section. The objective of this stage is to concentrate ethanol, separating it from water and non-fermentable solids (proteins, fat, fiber and others). The ethanol produced in the distillation has a concentration of 95% v / v.

To dehydrate ethanol, molecular sieve technology is used, through which a minimum concentration of 99.6% v/v is reached, a necessary requirement to be used for cutting naphtha.

The non-fermentable solids from the cereal go through superdecanters (centrifugal decanters), which separate "wet-cake" (dense phase) and "vinasse" (light phase). The wet-cake is sent to a tank for storage, while the vinasse is sent to the evaporation section to concentrate the soluble solids. This concentrate is called "Syrup".

”Wet-cake" and "Syrup" are mixed and marketed as "wet burlanda." The other alternative is to feed this mixture into a dryer to produce "dry burlanda or DDGS". These products are used for animal feed.

In an intermediate stage of the evaporation process, the vinasse goes through a centrifugal separator of plates with the objective of separating the oil from the stream.

The water evaporated in the evaporation section is condensed and sent to be treated in order to be reused during the production process and thus, reduce fresh water consumption.

1) Grain reception and pre-cleaning

The raw material with which the plant operates can be corn or sorghum. It has a storage cell, whose capacity is 60,000 tons. This capacity is equivalent to 120 days’ production. Before the trucks enter the plant, they are set and classified according to the quality of the grain

The trucks are unloaded in the cell through a dump platform and conventional lift-type equipment. The grain goes through a system of screens to perform their pre-cleaning process. The storage complies with the required air quality standards.

2) Milling

The clean grain is transported to hammer mills, turning it into mill, which goes through a sieve to provide a range of particle size. The larger particles return

to the mill, thus obtaining an optimal distribution for the hydration, cooking and liquefaction processes

3) Hydrating and cooking

At this stage, meal comes in contact with hot water (part of it, vinasse and "spent lees," which are recovered from later stages). The temperature of the mixture, called "slurry", is 83 °C (it is kept with low pressure steam).

During this stage, the moistened starch granule begins to break its crystalline matrix to allow access of the enzymes.

The slurry is pumped through a jet cooker, where steam is injected at 6.5 kg/cm2, increasing the temperature to 106 °C in order to accelerate the breakage of the crystalline matrix of the starch and also sterilize said stream.

Finally, the slurry enters a tank under vacuum, in which flashing takes place, cooling it to 83 °C, recovering steam that will then be used in the distillation stage.

In this step the pH is also adjusted to a value of about 5.2 in order to ensure the maximum activity of the enzymes.

4) Liquefaction

In this stage, the liquefaction enzyme (α-amylase) is added in order to catalyze the hydrolysis of the starch, prior to entering the fermentation stage. The starch chains are broken into shorter chains, called dextrins, which are then converted into glucose by the saccharification enzyme (glucoamylase) action.

5) Slurry cooling

Before entering the fermenters, the slurry should be cooled. In a first stage, the slurry is cooled from 83 °C to 60 °C by exchanging heat with the must coming from fermentation, allowing to save energy in distillation. Then, in a second exchanger, the slurry is cooled to 32 °C, with tower water, to enter the fermentation stage.

6) Saccharification and simultaneous fermentation

The slurry from liquefaction is transferred to the fermentor, in which the saccharification enzyme (glucoamylase) and the yeast are added. The enzyme converts the dextrins into monosaccharides (glucose) so that they can be fermented by the yeast to ethanol and carbon dioxide.

The carbon dioxide is continuously eliminated from the fermenters and, before being vented to the atmosphere, it goes through a gas scrubbing tower, recovering the ethanol vapors that are dragged with the gas.

The fermenters are stainless steel vessels, with agitation and external recirculation of the must through a plate exchanger type "wide gap". The heat generated during the fermentation is removed with tower water.

The total fermentation time is approximately 60 hours.

After the fermentation is finished, the must contains 15% v/v of ethanol and is sent to a receiver tank, called "Beer Well", in order to continuously supply must to the distillation section.

After emptying the fermenter, a cleaning stage with caustic soda and subsequent rinsings (CIP System) are carried out.

7) Distillation

The must from fermentation is sent to be distilled. The entire distillation system works "under vacuum", which makes it possible to operate at lower temperatures.

Initially, the must is preheated and fed to the must column (Mash Column). The steam that comes from the evaporation section is used as a source of energy for the column. The top of the must column (vapors of alcohol, water and volatile organic compounds) is fed directly to the bottom of the rectifier column (Rectifier Column) while the bottom of the must column, called whole-stillage (non-fermentable solids and water), is sent to centrifugal decanters (superdecanters) and then separated into 2 streams: wet-cake (heavy phase) and thin-stillage (light phase).

In the rectifier column, a mixture of ethanol and water with an ethanol concentration close to the azeotropic point (95-96 vol.%) Is obtained. In addition, volatile organic compounds are present and will then be separated in the Aldehyde Recovery Column. The bottom of the rectifier column is pumped to the exhaust column, in which vapors that contain ethanol are extracted to be recovered in the rectifier column.

As it was mentioned in the previous paragraph, the top of the rectifier column is sent to the aldehyde recovery column, which is provided with a boiler, whose heat is supplied by the condensation of the vapors of the dehydration section. At the bottom of the aldehyde recovery column, ethanol is extracted at its azeotropic concentration, which is sent to the dehydration

section. The top of this column is condensed, cooled and sent to the "Technical Alcohol" storage tank.

8) Dehydration

The objective of this stage is to eliminate the remaining water of the ethanol by means of molecular sieves, which can not be removed by simple distillation. The molecular cavities of the sieve absorb the water and produce,

on average, ethanol with a concentration of 99.6%, which complies with the specifications of the product. The objective of this stage is to eliminate the remaining water of the ethanol by means of molecular sieves, which can not be removed by simple distillation. The molecular cavities of the sieve absorb the water and produce, on average, ethanol with a concentration of 99.6%, which meets the specifications of the product.

In this section, two molecular sieves are used: while one is "in line", absorbing water from the ethanol vapor, the other one is regenerating itself (dis- absorbing the water from the sieve).

The vapor stream of dehydrated ethanol is condensed (part in the boiler of the aldehyde recovery column), cooled and sent to a daily storage tank, in which the quality of the product is controlled, prior to sending it to the dispatch tank.

9) Decantation

As mentioned in the distillation section, the whole-stillage stream, which is extracted from the bottom of the must column is transferred by means of a pump to the decantation section, which consists of four centrifugal decanters (superdecanters), three of which are in operation and one in stand-by. Superdecanters separate the whole-stillage into two streams: wet-cake (heavy phase) and thin-stillage (light phase).

The wet-cake stream is transported to the storage tank of wet burlanda or sent to the dryer if dry burlanda is being produced.

40% of the "thin-stillage" (or lightweight vinasse) flow is recirculated to the "Hydration and Cooking" section in order to save process water. The remaining 60% is sent to the evaporation section in order to raise the concentration of total solids from 7% to 35%. The concentrate is called Syrup.

10) Evaporation and oil recovery

The objective of this stage is to concentrate the solids of the thin-stillage by means of water evaporation.

The section has four falling film evaporators and three forced circulation evaporators.

A fraction of the vapors generated in the evaporators is used as a heating medium in the distillation section (energy integration process), while the other vapor fraction is condensed and sent to the condensate treatment sector, where the treatment stages that are necessary to reuse the current in

the production process are performed, generating considerable water savings (zero effluent).

In an intermediate evaporation stage, the previously filtered vinasse goes through a centrifugal separator of plates, which will separate the oil from the stream, which is then decanted and then stored.

11) Drying and pelleting

The currents of wet-cake and syrup are mixed, generating a product called wet burlanda or W.D.G.S (Wet Distillers Grain with Solubles). A percentage of the wet burlanda is distributed to the producers that are in a radius near the plant while the rest is sent to a dryer to produce dry burlanda or D.D.G.S. (Dried Distillers Grains with Solubles). This co-product is used for animal feed.

The drying is performed by indirect steam exchange. The dryer consists of a bundle of tubes that rotate inside a fixed housing. Steam flows inside the tubes, providing the energy for drying the product, which is found in the housing. The production of the dryer is 150 ton/day, raising the dry matter concentration from 35% p/p to 90% p/p.

The exhaust gases of the dryer are integrated energetically in the evaporation section in order to reduce steam consumption. For this, they must be compressed by means of a centrifugal compressor before being injected into the falling film evaporator to be used as a heating medium. The vapors generated in this evaporator are compressed, also by means of a centrifugal compressor, and injected in the distillation section.

An alternative for storage and handling is the pelletizing of DDGS, thus improving density and avoiding dust. For this, the DDGS goes through a furrier, previous conditioning of temperature and humidity.

12) Condensed product treatment

The fraction of vapors that are condensed in the evaporation stage are treated and recirculated to the process in two possible points: in the hydration and cooking section or as a contribution of fresh water in the cooling towers.

The condensate stream coming from the evaporation section (water plus volatile organic acids) is cooled and conditioned (nutrient addition and pH adjustment) before entering a UASB-type anaerobic reactor, in which 50% organic matter is degraded, generating methane and carbon dioxide. Then, it is sent to an aerobic treatment in which air is injected by means of mechanical agitation and air blowing. In this stage, the degrading of the organic matter that causes the oxygen demand of the medium comes to an end.

Then, the effluent is sent to clarification and filtration stages to be later reused as replacement water in the cooling towers.

In the Bioethanol and Mass Balance proces, it is possible to see where both the crude oil from corn and where the CO2 is released, these are two byproducts of the bioethanol obtaining process.

Crude oil from corn has a low value due to the high acidity that has approximately 11%. The objective is to produce a product that has greater added value from this product. The current production is about 270 tons a month.

CO2 is produced in fermentation and it is now emitted into the atmosphere. What is intended with the project is to offer utility to it, seeking to generate a new one or using it to generate a new product that can be used or to give it a commercial value thus improving the sustainability of the plant. The emission into the atmosphere at this time is approx. 6700 monthly tons of CO2

Market Potential and Commercialization Plan

It will depend on the product that can be obtained

Expected Outcome of Project

On the one hand, it is to offer greater sustainability to the plant, and to strengthen the industry adding value to the by-products

Short Profile of the Key Staff who will be Undertaking the Work

Ing. Químicos Alejandro Astudillo, Manager of the Bioethanol Plant alejandro.astudillo@vicentin.com.ar

Ing. Químico Mauro Orzan, research and development department

mauro.orzan@vicentin.com.ar