Well water treatment for ethanol production
Europe’s largest ethanol plant in the future requires different water qualities for several processes. A state-of-the-art turn-key water treatment system from ProMinent with reverse osmosis plants and water softener fulfils this challenge.
Turning corn into ethanol
In Dunaföldvár, south of the Hungarian capital Budapest, the company Pannonia Ethanol Zrt. currently utilizes roughly 650,000 tons of corn for the annual production of up to 280 million litres of ethanol. After the expansion phase in 2015, it will become Europe’s largest ethanol plant with an output of up to 450 million litres of ethanol.
For the existing production, every day about 3.000 cubic metres of well water have to be treated for use in different processes: About 60% are used for cooling water processes, 20% for the actual production process and 13% as make-up water for the steam boiler. Thus, during the new build phase of the production site in 2010, Pannonia Ethanol planned to install a turn-key water treatment system in order to provide the required different water qualities.
Key facts:
- 60 m3/h of raw water supply from four wells (until 2014)
- capacity of water treatment system: 3.000 m3/day (120 m3/h)
- treated water used for cooling water processes, production process and as make-up water for steam boiler
- four filters used for deironing and demanganizing, two reverse osmosis plants Dulcosmose for desalination and one DMEa Triplex water softener for reduction of well water hardness
Water treatment at its best
After a multilevel selection procedure, ProMinent Hungary was assigned with the project due to its comprehensive offer and persuading turn-key solution, which also included installation and commissioning as well as maintenance and after sales service.
The scope of supply for the water pre-treatment comprised the following main components: Four complete dosing stations with solenoid metering pumps gamma/ L used for the handling of chemicals for disinfection and pre-oxidation; four filters for deironing and demanganizing; a process water tank; two reverse osmosis plants Dulcosmose for desalination; one DMEa Triplex water softener. The final chemical treatment for generating proper boiler make-up water as well as water for the cooling circuit is carried out by eight dosing stations with gamma/ L pumps combined with measuring skids.
Water supply around the clock
The whole project from presentation of the offer until commissioning took about two months. Since 2011, the turn-key water treatment system installed at Pannonia Ethanol reliably and safely generates the required water for the various processes in a consistent high quality. The control and supervision of the complete system is fully automated facilitating operation for the ethanol company. Furthermore, due to the maintenance contract, ProMinent Hungary ensures a continuous availability and functionality around the clock.
After the successfully accomplished project in the new build phase, ProMinent was also assigned with the water treatment of the expansion project in 2014 in order to use water from two additional wells. This comprised another four filters and one reverse osmosis plant as well as equipment for increasing the water softening capacity up to 25 m3/h and the overall water treatment capacity up to 4.500 m3 per day.