2 April 2007

2 minute read

North America

“The goal was to strip the fossil fuels out of the production,” he said of his fully integrated system and bio-refinery during the Ethanol Producers And Consumers workshop on March 20 in Glasgow, Mont. “We strive to get everything but the squeal out.”

PRIME BioSolutions' ethanol plant, located in Mead, Neb., is a three-legged triangle, said Hallberg, with a dry-mill-like conventional ethanol plant without the dryer, feed wet mill and solid waste management. “Our capital is bigger because we had to build a feedlot,” he explained. “Since we feed wet distillers grains, we eliminate the need for natural gas. There is no new technology in this system, but we've been able to patent the method of the system.”

The PRIME BioSolutions' fully integrated ethanol-producing facility produces 27 million gallons of ethanol from corn a year, feeds wet cake distillers grains to 25,000 to 30,000 beef cattle, collects and breaks down the manure and distillers syrup in the anaerobic digester and uses the heat produced to run the ethanol plant, replacing 90 to 100 percent of the plant's natural gas needs.

In the end, the system produces a peat moss-like material, ammonia and purified water which is used to fertilize and irrigate the corn fields.

“The anaerobic digester is the key to the entire system,” said Hallberg. “It is full of little bugs that are trained to eat (poop) and die Š You have to keep the manure clean or it will kill the bugs. We have the only weather-protected feedlots in the state with slatted floors - the manure drops clean through the floors with the hoof action of the cattle.”

Source: The Prairie Star