Seminar this week: 'Water Use in Ethanol Plants'

There is an interesting seminar happening this week on 'Water Use in Ethanol Plants.' Presenting will be Kishore Rajagopalan of the Illinois Sustainable Technology Center.

On Wednesday this week, 5/5/2010, Kishore Rajagopalan of the Illinois Sustainable Technology Center will present on Water Use in Ethonol Plants. The seminar will be held at 1 Hazelwood Dr, Champaign, IL (Illinois Sustainable Technology Center) (map).

The conversion of biomass to energy, under the current state-of-the-art processes, requires the use of copious amounts of water. Recently constructed dry grind ethanol plants utilize 3 to 4 gallons H2O/gallon EtOH. Even this level of water usage for bioethanol production can place an undue burden on local water supplies. In some instances, the competition for water among various end-uses, including biofuel production, is sparking debate on the merits of large-scale bioenergy production.
This talk will present preliminary results from an ongoing investigation at an operating ethanol facility to identify opportunities for water reduction. Opportunities identified include improving the efficiency of RO operations, recycling of filter backwash, reuse of cooling tower blow down as well as feasibility of using treated municipal effluent. The talk will also address other considerations that may impact feasibility and extent of water reuse.

Folks in the Illinois area should definitely go check this out. The event appears to be free of charge to all interested parties.

For the vast majority of you who won't be able to make it to the seminar, the presentation will be videotaped and the slide show will be archived on the Illinois Sustainable Technology Center website. You can check out some old presentations from this seminar series, here.