Monday, November 5, 2007 : 2:40 p.m.
Water In Ethanol: Water Quality Role, Discharge Limit Influence, and Industry Trends
Ethanol plants require a significant amount of water and recent media coverage has brought even closer scrutiny on the industry as a result. While some of the information that has been presented is true, most of the story remains untold.
This presentation will focus on the following topics:
This presentation will focus on the following topics:
- Water Sourcing: Ethanol plants are traditionally built in areas with poor water quality. Some raw water quality parameters are more influential over others as it pertains to water use influence.
- Discharge Limits: Ethanol plants almost always have a non-contact cooling water discharge stream that leaves the plant. The flow rate of this stream is often much larger than it needs to be in order to comply with discharge limits imposed by regulating agencies.
- Future of Water In Ethanol: In order to site plants in even more difficult locations, engineers are working on novel methods of water conservation. Learn about some of the technologies being evaluated and pursued.
Kent K. Herbst, CWT, U.S. Water Services Mr. Herbst has extensive experience in the design and operations of water treatment facilities in ethanol plants. He heads the Ethanol Group at U.S. Water Services in Plymouth, MN. U.S. Water Services is the Ethanol Industry's leader in water treatment and have taken part in over 40 ethanol plant designs, start-up and continued consulting services. Mr. Herbst's areas of expertise include system design, water risk management, water reuse technologies, and zero-liquid discharge modeling.