SEPA
                                   United States
                                   Environmental Protection
                                   Agency
                                   Industrial Environmental Research
                                   Laboratory
                                   Cincinnati OH 45268
                                   Research and Development
                                   EPA-600/S7-82-018  August 1982
Project  Summary
                                  Source  Test  and  Evaluation
                                  Report:  Alcohol  Facility for
                                  Gasohol Production

                                  R. M. Scarberry, M. P. Papai, and Mary Ann Braun
                                    This study defines the requirements
                                  for environmental sampling and analysis
                                  of alcohol-producing facilities capable of
                                  supporting a Gasohol industry and applies
                                  these requirements to the environmental
                                  characterization of an alcohol plant. This
                                  document includes a conceptual design
                                  of a grain alcohol plant using a coal-fired
                                  boiler that is projected to be typical of
                                  future plants which will support a Gaso-
                                  hol industry. Environmental control op-
                                  tions are also discussed based on a com-
                                  parison of alcohol plant stream composi-
                                  tions with  environmental regulations.
                                  The results of this study provide prelimi-
                                  nary information on the environmental
                                  consequences of large-scale fermenta-
                                  tion ethanol plants which will provide
                                  alcohol for Gasohol.
                                    This Project Summary was developed
                                  by EPA's Industrial Environmental Re-
                                  search Laboratory, Cincinnati, OH, to
                                  announce key findings of the research
                                  project that is fully documented in a sep-
                                  arate report of the same title (see Project
                                  Report ordering information at back).

                                  Introduction
                                    Ethanol has been used as a fuel mixed
                                  with gasoline or alone as early as the
                                  1930s. Before World War II, over 4 mil-
                                  lion cars ran on alcohol fuels. The market
                                  for alcohol fuels, however, diminished
                                  as gasoline became inexpensive  and
                                  plentiful. A  systematic investigation of
                                  large-scale use of alcohol as a gasoline
                                  substitute began only with the advent of
                                  the energy crunch in 1 973.
                                    Today the term Gasohol  has  been
                                  coined to describe a blend of 90 percent
                                   unleaded gasoline and 10 percent agri-
                                   culturally derived  ethanol, although
                                   ethanol can be used in concentrations up
                                   to 20 percent in gasoline without carbu-
                                   retor modification. Alcohol is an attrac-
                                   tive alternative liquid fuel, since it can be
                                   synthesized from renewable biomass
                                   sources. As a near-term gasoline substi-
                                   tute, ethanol can help alleviate the oil im-
                                   port problem and reduce the balance of
                                   trade deficit while providing a market for
                                   farm surpluses or  wood  and  wood
                                   residues. Many political and economic
                                   factors favor the development of a gaso-
                                   hol industry; however, some uncertain-
                                   ties that exist about the industry should
                                   be investigated. One of these is the envi-
                                   ronmental impact of large-scale alcohol-
                                   producing facilities.
                                    Radian Corporation has conducted a
                                   program to define requirements for envi-
                                   ronmental sampling and analysis of alco-
                                   hol-producing facilities that are develop-
                                   ing to support a Gasohol industry and
                                   has applied these requirements to the
                                   environmental characterization of an
                                   alcohol plant. This program was carried
                                   out under Work Directive S1003 of EPA
                                   Contract No. 68-03-2667. Four interim
                                   reports  were previously submitted to
                                   EPA under this project.
                                    The objectives of this program are to
                                   define the requirements for environmen-
                                   tal  sampling  and analysis  of alcohol-
                                   producing facilities that are developing
                                   to support a Gasohol industry and to ap-
                                   ply these requirements to a demonstrated
                                   sampling and analysis effort at a selected
                                   alcohol plant.

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Approach
  To address the first objective, the de-
termination of sampling and analytical
requirements for facilities capable of
providing alcohol for Gasohol, the fol-
lowing tasks were conducted:

  • Task 1 - Data collection;
  • Task 2 - Process evaluation;
  • Task 3 - Review of environmental
            regulations; and
  • Task 4 - Assessment of control tech-
            nology and requirements.
  In the first task, state-of-the-art tech-
nology was summarized to identify com-
mercial or pilot plant facilities typical of
those  that would support a  Gasohol
industry. Information on  ethanol  and
methanol processes utilizing a variety of
biomass materials was collected, and a
bibliography containing the sources of
information for this task was assembled.
It was submitted as the first interim
report for this program.
  To address the second task, the infor-
mation gathered on alcohol technology
was assessed to identify several existing
alcohol beverage plants which employ
processing steps similar to those which
might  be utilized  in future alcohol  fuel
plants. Flow  diagrams,  processing
steps,  mass  balances, and emissions
sources were identified for these plants.
These  data were presented in a second
interim report. A detailed  mass  and
energy balance for an alcohol fuel plant
considered to be typical of future alcohol
facilities supporting a Gasohol industry,
also presented in the interim report, has
been updated and included in Section 3
of the full report.
  Task 3 consisted of a review of federal
and state environmental regulations that
might  be  applicable  to   fermentation
ethanol facilities. This information is pre-
sented in Section 4 of the full report.
  In Task  4,  a comparison of the envi-
ronmental regulations identified in Task
3 with alcohol stream compositions was
conducted to define the environmental
control requirements necessary for com-
pliance. A discussion of this analysis and
designation of the probable control tech-
nologies to be implemented are presented
in Section 5 of the full report.
  To conduct the sampling and analysis
of an alcohol plant, the second objective
of this program, a site-specific sampling
plan, was formulated based on the sam-
pling and analytical requirements deter-
mined  in the previous tasks. These sam-
pling requirements and a test plan con-
stituted the fourth interim  report of this
program and are presented in Sections 6
and 7 of the full report.
  A brief discussion of the sampling trip
(which highlights any deviations made in
the test plan during sampling and analy-
sis) is included in Section 8 of the full
report. The results and conclusions from
the sample  analyses are presented in
Section 2 of the full report.

Conclusions and
Recommendations
  The sampling and analytical require-
ments for the environmental characteri-
zation  of an ethanol-producing  facility
include:
  • A  quantification  of the pollutants
    present in effluent streams such as
    pesticides, ammonia, benzene, and
    metals in the solid waste streams
    and by-products; solids, organics,
    metals, pH, pesticides and benzene
    in the liquid effluents;  and criteria
    pollutants, hydrocarbons,  and ben-
    zene in the air emissions.
  • A  determination  of the effective-
    ness of environmental control mod-
    ules such  as condensers on distil-
    lation  columns and vacuum lines;
    cyclones,  scrubbers,   or   other
    mechanical collectors on stacks or
    dryer exhausts; and biological treat-
    ment on distillery wastewaters.
  • A characterization of selected inter-
    nal process streams to determine
    the fate of pesticides  or benzene
    losses in an alcohol plant.
  It was determined that:
  • Alcohol facilities might  cause envi-
    ronmental problems from the dis-
    charge of liquid effluents or air emis-
    sions if these streams are not pro-
    perly treated or controlled.
  • Untreated distillery  wastewaters
    are acidic  and  high in biochemical
    oxygen  demand  (BOD), chemical
    oxygen  demand  (COD), and sus-
    pended solids (SS).
  • Uncontrolled  exhausts  from  by-
    product distiller's dried grain (DDG)
    dryers are high in particulate loading.
  • NOX, SO2 and particulate emissions
    from fuel oil or coal combustion for
    steam generation can be a major en-
    vironmental problem  at an alcohol
    plant.
  • Solid waste streams, which can be
    eliminated through recycle and  in-
    clusion in the by-products, pose no
    serious environmental problems, as
    they are innocuous.
  The conclusions listed below are based
on the analytical results obtained from
the environmental characterization of an
alcohol plant:

Solid Wastes and By-Products

  • The analysis of benzene, pesticides,
    and  ammonia in the DDG, animal
    feed, and biosludge streams revealed
    that  no major environmental  prob-
    lems would be associated with the
    discharge  or  utilization  of  solid
    wastes from this alcohol  plant due
    to the presence of these compounds.
  • Pesticides  identified on feedstock
    grains  were apparently destroyed
    during  feedstock  preparation (i.e.,
    cooking) as no traces of pesticides
    were found in the solid wastes or
    wastewater effluent streams.

Wastewaters

  •  Dissolved solids (DS), the major con-
    tributor to total solids (TS), came
    from  the makeup  city  water and
    well  water, not  the fermentation
    process.
  •  Barometric condensate, evaporator
    condensate, and  fermenter wash
    water  were the  only  significant
    sources of suspended solids (SS) at
    the alcohol  plant.
  •  Benzene does not appear to be a ma-
    jor wastewater problem for this
    facility, which employs a benzene
    dehydration unit, as it was detected
    at levels  less than 60  ppb in the
    wastewater.
  •  All wastewater streams from  fer-
    mentation and distillation were acid-
    ic; they could be an environmental
    problem if  not neutralized  before
    discharge.
  •  Extended aeration and clarification
    reduced high concentrations of sus-
    pended solids (SS), BOD, COD, total
    organic carbon (TOO, and ammonia
    in the wastewater from this distiller
    to acceptable discharge levels.
  •  The plant records for this alcohol
    plant show that excursions in the
    biological treatment system  may
    occur due to occasional spills or me-
    chanical problems. Additional aera-
    tion facilities or equalization basins
    can be  employed to avoid the dis-
    charge  of  poorly  treated  waste-
    waters  due  to upsets in  the current
    system.
  •  Most of the 14 priority pollutants
    detected  at very  low levels  (less
    than  40 ppb) in  the wastewaters
    from  this facility were found to be
    contaminants from equipment  or

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    the on-site laboratory and not prod-
    ucts or by-products of alcohol pro-
    duction.
  • Total solids (TS) concentration in
    the bottoms from the solvent ex-
    tractor,  rectifier,  fusel oil column,
    stripping column, and dehydration
    column  were very low due to up-
    stream removal in the beer still.

Air Emissions
  • Condensers, the only pollution abate-
    ment devices for hydrocarbons  on
    the vent lines,  provided  adequate
    control for hydrocarbon emissions.
  • Sulfur dioxide and  nitrogen oxide
    emission levels were  low, as ex-
    pected for a  facility using natural
    gas. Combustion  of fuel oil or coal
    could present greater environmen-
    tal problems.
  • The analysis for particulate emissions
    from  the  cyclones on the dryers
    showed this facility to be in compli-
    ance. However,  particulate emis-
    sions have a high potential to be an
    environmental problem for alcohol
    plants which dry their by-product
    grains or use coal or No. 6 fuel oil for
    steam generation.
  It must be emphasized that the above
conclusions are based on a single envi-
ronmental characterization. Additional
sampling  and  analysis should be  con-
ducted at other plant sites to confirm
these initial conclusions.

Recommendations
  Recommendations for further research
to ensure that alcohol plants supporting
the Gasohol industry pose no major envi-
ronmental problems include:
  (1)  Gas chromatography/mass spec-
      troscopy (GC/MS) analysis of pes-
      ticide levels in the flash cooler con-
      densate and the feed stream to the
      fermenter to confirm the fate  of
      pesticides in alcohol synthesis;
  (2)  environmental characterization of
      other distilleries which utilize differ-
      ent feedstocks, processing equip-
      ment,  fuel sources,  and  waste-
      water treatment methods;
  (3)  evaluation of other pollution con-
      trol technologies to control emis-
      sions and effluents;
  (4)  performance  of area  monitoring
      for  hydrocarbons to determine
      worker safety  information; and
  (5)  analysis   for  priority   pollutant
      metals for the by-product stream
      to determine whether these spe-
      cies could concentrate when land-
      farmed or landspread.
R. M. Scarberry and M. P. Papal are with Radian Corp., McLean, VA 22102; the
  EPA author Mary Ann Braun (also the EPA Project Officer, see below) is with
  the Industrial Environmental Research Laboratory, Cincinnati, OH 45268.
The complete report, entitled "Source Test and Evaluation Report:  Alcohol
  Facility for Gasohol Production." (Order No. PB 82-237 041; Cost:  $16.50.
  subject to change)  will be available only from:
        National Technical Information Service
        5285 Port Royal Road
        Springfield, VA 22161
        Telephone: 703-487-4650
The EPA Project Officer can be contacted at:
        Industrial Environmental Research Laboratory
        U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
        Cincinnati, OH 45268
                                                                                     ft US.GOVERNMENTPfllNTINQOFFICE. 1Mi-559-017/0805

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