Design and Operation of a Portable Ethanol Plant. Final Report

摘要

A portable distillation plant with a packed reflux column was designed and built that is capable of producing 10 to 15 gallons of 190 proof ethanol per hour. Several kinds of feedstocks were used to produce ethanol. Corn served as a good feedstock and was easily processed in the still. However, because of the present high prices of corn and the manual labor for operation it cannot be used to produce ethanol commercially as a fuel at prices competitive with petroleum fuels. Cellulosic feedstocks such as paper, sawdust and grasses and leaves were enzymatically degraded to sugars and fermented to ethanol. Because of the manual labor required and small capacity of the still total operation costs would preclude competitive fuel prices. However, such a plant could be used on a farm for production of a supplementary fuel or for independence from petroleum fuels. The trials with cellulosic materials did give evidence that such feedstocks are plausible sources for ethanol when produced on a large scale in an automated production plant. On a large scale basis ethanol could be produced competitively as an alternative fuel for gasoline. (ERA citation 10:020152)