Farm Scale Ethanol

Farm Scale Ethanol systems, when combined with a feedlot, provides greater financial gain and environmental benefit than a standard corn to ethanol plant. By integrating the systems of cattle, ethanol, and energy production from manure, the farmer solves many waste issues while increasing revenue flows.

Integrated Systems

Combining a feedlot with manure treatment/heat production and an ethanol plant offers efficiencies that make corn based ethanol production far more profitable and good for the environment than typical corn based ethanol production.

PESCO-BEAM is happy to offer analysis, design, construction, and continued services to farmers that want to add value to their farm while helping the environment.

Lately it is debated weather corn ethanol is either profitable or good for the environment. We feel these are reasonable concerns. By combining a feedlot with manure treatment/heat production and an ethanol plant you overcome these concerns in a graceful manner.

Advantages of Farm Scale Ethanol

Manure smell reduced by up to 97%

The farmer makes all the profit. Typically the farmer is paid for the corn only. We want to provide systems on a scale that can be owned and operated by the farmer. You get the corn and ethanol profit, greatly increasing the profit per acre on your farm

Farm Scale Onsite Efficiency. With a small system, all of the typical costs of the shipping of the feed and the manure are conserved.

System Components

There are three components to the system. There is nothing wasted in the farm scale ethanol system, with all exit streams being utilized by another component of the system, or being sold for profit on the market.

1. Ethanol Plant

Takes in corn
Heat for running plant, distillation
The put out 2.5 or more gallons of ethanol per bushel of corn
Wet distiller grains and solubles(WDGS), mostly fat proteins, vitamins and enzymes are left over from the corn

2. Feedlot

Fed up to 40% with WDGS, reducing food costs and shipping as WDGS can be seen as a free food source produced onsite as a byproduct from the ethanol plant
Cattle produce manure in large quantities

3. Anaerobic Digester or Gasification System

Either an Anaerobic Digester or a Gasification System can be used to treat the manure while obtaining enough heat energy to power the ethanol plant without the need for Natural Gas, the most expensive input of a traditional corn ethanol plant.
Anaerobic Digesters use a slow, low-temperature and high volume process that produces methane along with other profitable products such as fertilizer, animal bedding, and potting soil. The methane can provide the required heat to run the ethanol plant.
Gasification is a high-temperature, fast, low-volume process that produces syngas, and char. The syngas can be burned like natural gas in quantities that can power the ethanol plant while the char can be used as fertilizer. Gasification, unlike Anaerobic digestion can potentially function in open feedlots where manure is contaminated with sand and soil.