How Is CHP Used in Ethanol Plants?
CHP technologies are flexible, providing many ways to apply CHP to the dry milling ethanol process. • The most common CHP technology used in ethanol plants today consists of a gas turbine-electric generator unit, placed in tandem with a waste heat boiler. The turbine-driven generator provides electricity for the facility and the turbine exhaust is used in a waste heat boiler to produce process steam. • Interest in biomass and coal CHP is growing. Biomass can be an option for ethanol plants located near sources of agricultural or forest waste or for plants looking to use the ethanol process byproducts as a fuel source. Several technical approaches are being implemented for coal and biomass, including fluidized-bed boilers or gasifiers that integrate volatile organic compound (VOC) destruction directly into the system and generate power through a steam turbine. • Ethanol plants with large thermal oxidizer loads can use a waste-heat boiler to produce steam from the oxidizer exhaust. High-
