2019 July Ethanol Producer Magazine

Page 1

JULY 2019

O N T HE

CHARTS 2019 Salary Survey Results

Page 22

ALSO

Canada’s Greenfield Diversifies Page 30

Educating an Industry

Page 36

Precision in Process Prediction Page 44

www.ethanolproducer.com

FARM FAMILIES ARE HURTING AND EPA IS MAKING IT WORSE According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, farm incomes have fallen by 44 percent over the last six years. In the first quarter of 2019, farm incomes declined by another $12 billion. The EPA is making the farm crisis worse by helping oil companies reduce the demand for ethanol, restricting innovation and threatening farm jobs. The EPA’s continued abuse of refinery handouts has reduced demand for biofuels by 2.6 billion gallons, which is the equivalent of one billion bushels of corn. President Trump is a strong supporter of our nation’s farmers and biofuels. It’s time for the EPA to respect his wishes and advance his policy agenda.

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EDITORIAL Editor Lisa Gibson lgibson@bbiinternational.com Associate Editor Matt Thompson mthompson@bbiinternational.com Copy Editor Jan Tellmann jtellmann@bbiinternational.com

ART Art Director Jaci Satterlund jsatterlund@bbiinternational.com Graphic Designer Raquel Boushee rboushee@bbiinternational.com

PUBLISHING & SALES CEO Joe Bryan jbryan@bbiinternational.com President Tom Bryan tbryan@bbiinternational.com Vice President, Marketing & Sales John Nelson jnelson@bbiinternational.com Business Development Director Howard Brockhouse hbrockhouse@bbiinternational.com Senior Account Manager/Bioenergy Team Leader Chip Shereck cshereck@bbiinternational.com Circulation Manager Jessica Tiller jtiller@bbiinternational.com Marketing & Advertising Manager Marla DeFoe mdefoe@bbiinternational.com

EDITORIAL BOARD

Ringneck Energy Walter Wendland Little Sioux Corn Processors Steve Roe Commonwealth Agri-Energy Mick Henderson Pinal Energy Keith Kor Aemetis Advanced Fuels Eric McAfee Western Plains Energy Derek Peine Front Range Energy Dan Sanders Jr.

Customer Service Please call 1-866-746-8385 or email us at service@bbiinternational.com. Subscriptions to Ethanol Producer Magazine are free of charge to everyone with the exception of a shipping and handling charge for anyone outside the United States. To subscribe, visit www.EthanolProducer.com or you can send your mailing address and payment (checks made out to BBI International) to: Ethanol Producer Magazine Subscriptions, 308 Second Ave. N., Suite 304, Grand Forks, ND 58203. You can also fax a subscription form to 701-746-5367. Back Issues, Reprints and Permissions Select back issues are available for $3.95 each, plus shipping. Article reprints are also available for a fee. For more information, contact us at 866-746-8385 or service@bbiinternational.com. Advertising Ethanol Producer Magazine provides a specific topic delivered to a highly targeted audience. We are committed to editorial excellence and highquality print production. To find out more about Ethanol Producer Magazine advertising opportunities, please contact us at 866-746-8385 or service@bbiinternational.com. Letters to the Editor We welcome letters to the editor. Send to Ethanol Producer Magazine Letters to the Editor, 308 2nd Ave. N., Suite 304, Grand Forks, ND 58203 or email to lgibson@bbiinternational.com. Please include your name, address and phone number. Letters may be edited for clarity and/or space.

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2020 International Fuel Ethanol Workshop & Expo ACE American Coalition for Ethanol AGI Tramco Agra Industries Buckman Cleaver-Brooks D3MAX LLC DSM Bio-based Products & Services DuPont Industrial Biosciences EISENMANN Corporation Fagen Inc. Fluid Quip Technologies, LLC Growth Energy Hengye, Inc. ICM, Inc. Interra Global Corporation Lallemand Biofuels & Distilled Spirits McC Inc. Mist Chemical & Supply Company Mole Master Service Corporation Nalco Water Oxidizers, Inc. Phibro Ethanol Performance Group POET LLC Rayeman Elements, Inc. RPMG, Inc. Solenis LLC Stover Controls Suez Water Technologies & Solutions The Arnold Company U.S. Water Services Victory Energy Operations, LLC Visionary Fiber Technologies Whitefox Technologies Limited WINBCO

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JULY 2019 VOLUME 25

FEATURES

CONTENTS

DEPARTMENTS PERSONNEL

4

AD INDEX

Results from the 2019 salary survey are in By Lisa Gibson

8

EDITOR'S NOTE

9

EVENTS CALENDAR

10

DRIVE

Breaking Down the Data

22

FILE PHOTO

EFFICIENCY

Waste Not

Canada’s Greenfield powers up with biogas By Susanne Retka Schill

30

ISSUE 7

GREENFIELD GLOBAL

EDUCATION

12

14

Room to Grow

Process control, safety workshops offered in Nebraska By Matt Thompson

36

Dreaming of Data By Lisa Gibson

Hardship or Handout? The Facts are Clear By Emily Skor

GLOBAL SCENE

Canada’s CFS: Success is in the Details By Andrea Kent

GRASSROOTS VOICE

Queen for (75,000 Barrels or Less) a Day By Ron Lamberty

18

BUSINESS BRIEFS

54

MARKETPLACE

ISTOCK

TECHNOLOGY

Partners in Prospecting Software provides holistic predictive modeling By Matt Thompson

44

BONANZA ASSOCIATES

CONTRIBUTION

50 POLICY

Around the World

Global changes present opportunities By Brian Healy

ON THE COVER

The results of the 2019 Salary and Job Satisfaction Survey start on page 22.

GRAPHIC: RAQUEL BOUSHEE, BBI INTERNATIONAL

Ethanol Producer Magazine: (USPS No. 023-974) July 2019, Vol. 25, Issue 7. Ethanol Producer Magazine is published monthly by BBI International. Principal Office: 308 Second Ave. N., Suite 304, Grand Forks, ND 58203. Periodicals Postage Paid at Grand Forks, North Dakota and additional mailing offices. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to Ethanol Producer Magazine/Subscriptions, 308 Second Ave. N., Suite 304, Grand Forks, North Dakota 58203.

6 | ETHANOL PRODUCER MAGAZINE | JULY 2019

ETHANOLPRODUCER.COM | 7

EDITOR'S NOTE

Dreaming of Data I’ve been dreaming about charts, graphs, percentages and salary ranges. They’ve had my full attention for a couple weeks, as I’ve waded through the results

Lisa Gibson

Editor lgibson@bbiinternational.com

of the 2019 Job Satisfaction and Salary Survey. Now that it’s all laid out on the pages of this magazine, my co-workers will be pleased that my data nerdfest is over. Until next time. This year’s figures show some of the symptoms of an industry struggling, in fewer bonuses and fewer overall raises reported. But several positions leaped to new salary ranges, while others leveled out from jumps backward in the 2017 survey. Job satisfaction is favorable, no managers reported plans to cut positions, and headhunters are actively contacting plant staff for other opportunities. See the results, with comparisons to past surveys, starting on page 22. Next, we head up to Canada for a profile of the efficient waste-reducing measures Greenfield has configured into its ethanol plants. Partnering with surrounding cities to supplement natural gas with biogas, Greenfield’s Varennes, Quebec, plant is helping the province meet its goal of eliminating the landfilling of organic waste. And it displaces 15 percent of the plant’s natural gas consumption. Plans are in place to expand that project, while Greenfield’s Chatham, Ontario, plant pipes carbon dioxide to a nearby tomato greenhouse, and the company looks into developing alcohol from industrial waste. We’ve been eager to profile Greenfield’s environmental measures for some time now, and this month, we’ve got it. Find it on page 30. The Nebraska Ethanol Board and the University of Nebraska-Lincoln’s Manufacturing Extension Partnership have teamed up to provide process control and safety workshops for the ethanol industry. Still young, the courses have seen tremendous interest, prompting the relocation of one nearer to an airport. Ethanol industry staff from all over the country are welcome to attend. There’s more about it on page 36. Last, we explore a technology coming to ethanol from the paper industry. The system is described by its creators as being similar to a flight simulator as well as a GPS, for its planning, predicting and process mapping proficiencies. Show Me Ethanol in Carrollton, Missouri, has been using the technology since late last year, and the plant manager there says it was particularly helpful during the spring outage. It starts on page 44. If you like data, technology, education and efficiency, you’ll enjoy this issue. And if you enjoy it as much as I did, it might even visit you in your dreams.

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EVENTS CALENDAR 2019 ACE Conference August 14-16, 2019 Omaha Marriott Downtown Omaha, Nebraska The ACE Conference is a must-attend event for industry leadership. Relaying timely updates on public policy, market development, board of director training, and much more, this event combines the detail of high-level training courses with all the fun of a family reunion. (605) 334-3381 www.ethanol.org/events/conference

2020 International Biomass Conference & Expo February 3-5, 2020 Gaylord Opryland Resort & Convention Center Nashville, Tennessee

Now in its 13th year, the International Biomass Conference & Expo is expected to bring together more than 800 attendees, 100 exhibitors and 100 speakers from more than 40 countries. It is the largest gathering of biomass professionals and academics in the world. The conference provides relevant content and unparalleled networking opportunities in a dynamic business-to-business environment. In addition to abundant networking opportunities, the largest biomass conference in the world is renowned for its outstanding programming—powered by Biomass Magazine–that maintains a strong focus on commercial-scale biomass production, new technology, and near-term research and development. Join us at the International Biomass Conference & Expo as we enter this new and exciting era in biomass energy. 866-746-8385 www.BiomassConference.com

2020 International Fuel Ethanol Workshop & Expo June 15-17, 2020 Minneapolis, Minnesota

From its inception, the mission of this event has remained constant: The FEW delivers timely presentations with a strong focus on commercial-scale ethanol production—from quality control and yield maximization to regulatory compliance and fiscal management. The FEW is the ethanol industry’s premier forum for unveiling new technologies and research findings. The program is primarily focused on optimizing grain ethanol operations while also covering cellulosic and advanced ethanol technologies. 866-746-8385 www.fuelethanolworkshop.com

Please check our website for upcoming webinars www.ethanolproducer.com/pages/webinar

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Hardship or Handout? The Facts are Clear By Emily Skor

A recent report from the Department of Energy’s Energy Information Administration shows that net income for oil and gas companies hit a five-year high last year—in stark contrast to claims of “hardship” oil giants have used to skirt America’s biofuel laws.

According to the report, “2018 was the most profitable year for these U.S. oil producers since 2013, despite crude oil prices that were lower in 2018 than in 2013 on an annual average basis.” On a cost per barrel of oil equivalent (BOE) basis, “expenses for these 43 companies averaged $48/BOE in 2018, the lowest amount from 2013 to 2018.” So with costs down and profits up, it’s hard to imagine how multibillion-dollar oil corporations like Exxon Mobil and Chevron were able to claim “disproportionate economic hardship”—a prerequisite for their refineries to secure special exemptions from the U.S. EPA. Exemptions in hand, these refiners were permitted to replace 2.6 billion gallons of homegrown biofuels with more petroleum. And while media reports have uncovered the names of several recipients, most remain hidden behind a bureaucratic smokescreen, despite EPA promises to increase transparency. Worse, it’s hard-pressed rural families who are paying the price for these record profits. U.S. ethanol consumption recently fell for the first time in 20 years. Across the heartland, many biofuel plants have shut their doors or idled production. Farm income plummeted $11.8 billion over just the last three months, the steepest drop since 2016. That’s why Growth Energy is working closely with our rural champions in Congress to restore integrity to the process. In fact, Growth Energy members recently returned home from our second flyin of the year, after meeting with over 80 lawmakers and their staffs on Capitol Hill. With our support, U.S. Reps. Cindy Axne, D-Iowa, and Adrian Smith, R-Neb., led a group of 35 members of the U.S. House of Representatives who sent a letter to EPA requesting the agency end the practice of granting small refinery exemptions for large or unqualified refineries and uphold the Renewable Fuel Standard.

“This unprecedented rate of granting waivers is a betrayal of our rural communities, detrimental to our energy security, and threatens our entire agricultural sector at a time of declining incomes and rising debts for our producers. EPA must halt this process and reallocate waived gallons as the law intends,” the representatives wrote. Shortly after the letter, press reports revealed that EPA had made it easier for well-connected refiners to claim special exemptions long before the court decisions agency leaders had used to justify their actions. It was undeniable proof that the massive biofuel demand destruction undertaken by EPA had nothing to do with the law and everything to do with boosting profits for some of the world’s largest oil companies. Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, immediately spoke up, announcing, “EPA repeatedly told Congress its hands were tied and blamed the courts. That appears to have been a lie. EPA also said it was following Department of Energy recommendations. We also know that’s bunk. I’m going to get to the bottom of this.” He is not alone. On the other side of the aisle, Sen. Tammy Duckworth, D-Ill., penned a letter to the EPA Office of Inspector General. “This deception by EPA political appointees may indicate improper motives and conflicts of interest and it warrants a thorough review by the EPA OIG,” she wrote. And on May 23, Chairman of the U.S. House Committee on Agriculture Collin Peterson, D-Minn., along with Reps. Dusty Johnson, R-S.D., Dave Loebsack, D-Iowa, Rodney Davis, R-Ill., and Roger Marshall, R-Kan. introduced the bipartisan Renewable Fuel Standard Integrity Act of 2019, which would bring much-needed transparency to the secretive exemption process. It’s clear that leaders in Washington are taking notice. We will not allow these exemptions to get lost in the noise while rural communities suffer. Because the numbers are clear. The “economic hardship” is happening in America’s farm belt—not in oil company boardrooms. It’s time for EPA to fulfill the president’s promises to rural America and restore the market promised to America’s biofuel producers.

Author: Emily Skor CEO, Growth Energy 202.545.4000 eskor@growthenergy.org

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GLOBAL SCENE

Canada’s CFS: Success is in the Details By Andrea Kent

Shortly after being elected Prime Minister in 2015, Justin Trudeau enthusiastically signed the Paris agreement. At the United Nations ceremony, Trudeau told the

crowd “climate change will test our intelligence, our compassion, and our will. But we are equal to that challenge.” Fast forward almost four years, and Canada is about to put its proverbial money where its mouth is. The government’s climate action plan is anchored by two landmark policies: a national price on carbon and a new Clean Fuel Standard. The proposed CFS design is decidedly more ambitious than similar systems already in place elsewhere (e.g., British Columbia, Oregon and California), as it will apply to transportation fuels as well as fuels used in industry and buildings. Although the CFS has been intentionally ambitious, complex and unprecedented, carbon pricing has dominated much of the country’s energy policy debate—until now. The draft regulations addressing requirements for liquid fuels under the CFS were expected by the end of June (after press time of this column). This will allow just enough time before Canada’s fall election for stakeholders to review and comment on the contents. Barring any change of plans, the liquid fuels regulations will be finalized in 2020 and come into force in 2022. For many of us, the CFS process has entailed three years of rigorous consultation and exchanges across a variety of stakeholders. The product is promising. However, creating the optimal investment environment for renewable fuels requires ensuring the finer details of the CFS hit the mark. 1. Carbon Intensity and Life Cycle Assessment Modeling The CFS requires fuel suppliers to reduce the carbon intensity of the fuels supplied to the Canadian market. As such, the method by which the CFS measures carbon intensity is among the policy’s most important aspects. The Canadian government opted to create a new LCA tool for this purpose. The more closely the new model aligns with established LCA tools, the greater the certainty for industry. If there is too much variation, different jurisdictions in Canada could report different greenhouse gas (GHG) emission reductions, increasing

compliance burdens, and limiting the potential revenue and build-out of low carbon fuels production. In this context, it will be important for the new LCA tool to fully account for all life cycle emission benefits from innovative industries with proven technology, such as production of biofuels from waste. 2. Credit Trading System Under the CFS, companies can decide on how to best lower the carbon intensity of their fuels. A newly created market of CFS compliance credits will make it easy to find the lowest-cost compliance options available. In many cases, this would mean higher levels of biofuel use, but seemingly minor changes to policy details could hinder investment and growth. Fortunately, the CFS will include the ability to generate early action credits as of the time the policy is finalized in 2020. CFS credit trading should be transparent, with the government making information regarding all credit transactions readily available, like the quantity of credits traded and credit price. Whether the CFS allows fossil fuel producers to generate credits for upstream GHG reductions on exported fuels is another notable consideration impacting the role of biofuels. 3. Flexibility vs. Obligation Flexibility is a core principle of the CFS, but policy guardrails are essential to prevent eroding the demand and market value of lowcarbon fuels. For example, the CFS sets separate targets for liquid, solid and gaseous fuels. Each of these fuel types will have its own stream of credits. Limiting credit trading between these three streams is essential to sending a strong market signal for investment. Technical analysis by Renewable Industries Canada (RICanada) showed that to strike a fair balance, the CFS should not allow more than 10 percent of the liquid fuel targets to be met by credits from the other streams. In the big picture, Canada’s CFS presents a real opportunity for biofuels and the environment. It’s a grand and sweeping policy that can offer many benefits: expanding renewable fuels use and production, spurring new technologies, creating jobs, and increasing choice for consumers, all while helping fight climate change. But, as we pursue these admirable ambitions, it is essential to keep an eye on the specifics and the mechanics of implementation. As the CFS proves, success is in the details. Author: Andrea Kent Vice President of Government and Public Relations, Greenfield Global Board Member, Renewable Industries Canada 1.833.476.3835 andrea.kent@greenfield.com

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GRASSROOTS VOICE

Queen for (75,000 Barrels or Less) a Day By Ron Lamberty

When Ronald Reagan ran for president 40 years ago, he often told the story of a woman the Chicago Tribune dubbed the “Welfare Queen,” to illustrate government waste and abuse. The

woman drove new Cadillacs, wore furs and jewelry, and used multiple identities and dead veteran husbands to collect food stamps, Social Security, welfare and veterans’ benefits supposedly in excess of $150,000 a year. She was caught, convicted and went to prison in the ’70s over an $8,000 theft, and gained “legend” status by disappearing after serving her sentence. Today, getting caught obtaining food stamps, welfare or other government benefits by providing misinformation about income, job status, or people living in a household, would require repayment of excess benefits along with potentially large fines. Depending on the amount involved, a person could get kicked off all government benefits programs for 10 years and serve up to five years in prison. With that in mind, imagine the U.S. Department of Agriculture granting Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (the program formerly known as food stamps) benefits to people barely qualified under a single program eligibility requirement. Think about the government then ignoring reports those people—who said they couldn’t afford food for their family—were boxing up meals at a local food pantry and selling those meals along with groceries purchased with their new SNAP cards. Then, picture the fraudsters bragging about how much cash the scam brought in, while picking up their buddies’ dinner tab at a fancy restaurant. Can you imagine government officials dropping by the dinner and saying, “Good for you! Don’t forget to apply again next year!?” Me neither. Now, change the agency to the U.S. EPA, the program to small refinery exemptions (SREs) from the Renewable Fuel Standard, and the applicant to any owner of a refinery processing a meager 3 million gallons of oil a day (1.15 billion gallons per year) or less— even if the owner is one of the largest, richest companies in the

14 | ETHANOL PRODUCER MAGAZINE | JULY 2019

world. Think about these SRE holders buying the ethanol they swore they couldn’t afford (after ethanol and renewable identification number prices crash when EPA admits granting the waivers) and selling the attached “buy ethanol, get free RINs” credits for cash— or holding them to avoid compliance in upcoming years. Picture lavish annual meetings and slick corporate reports detailing tens of millions of dollars in profits added to “disadvantaged” refinery bottom lines because EPA bought the sad stories. It’s not hard to imagine, because it already happened. EPA even granted retroactive waivers to companies that said they couldn’t comply, but already did. If you’re like me, you can see Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, EPA and oil companies high-fiving each other over windfall refiner profits paid for by gutting ethanol margins, while President Donald Trump distracts ethanol supporters by finally producing the shiny E15 waiver he’s been promising since he was candidate Trump. EPA now parrots small refiners’ lawyers who claim the court review saying EPA can’t use “viability” as the sole test of hardship, actually means EPA must grant exemptions to small refiners showing any cost to comply—regardless of proportion. EPA apparently ignores refiner cost savings and production gains from producing lower-octane blendstock for ethanol blending, and higher margins refiners make, ostensibly to pay for RINs. In the real world, using ethanol lowers costs, but EPA has chosen to believe seasoned oil industry misinformation experts. Maybe we should, too. EPA claims timing didn’t allow past reallocation, but two years of blanket SREs and a court ruling say they’re inevitable, right? Maybe EPA can crown its “Oilfare Queens” right up front this time and reallocate their gallons, as required by law. Author: Ron Lamberty Senior Vice President American Coalition for Ethanol 605.334.3381 rlamberty@ethanol.org

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BUSINESS BRIEFS

People, Partnerships & Projects

LeGrand named US Grains Council president and CEO The U.S. Grains Council’s board of directors has named Ryan LeGrand, USGC director in Mexico, as its next president and CEO. “We are very pleased to announce the selection of Ryan LeGrand as the council’s new president and CEO,” said USGC Chairman Jim Stitzlein. “His steadfast and level-headed leadership comes at a critical time amid challenges around the world for U.S. trade and a rapidly growing program of council activities in markets that show potential for new demand.” LeGrand joined USGC in Mexico in 2015 and has served as the director of the Mexico City office since 2016. In this capacity, he has overseen the expansion of USGC’s programming in that country, including promotion of ethanol, and worked to steady relations with the U.S. and Mexican feed and livestock industries during the negotiations of the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement. “I am honored to have been selected for this role at the council and look forward to expanding trade opportunities for the grain,

ethanol and related products we promote around the world,” LeGrand said. “The American farmer works extremely hard each year to produce quality crops, and I look forward to working with our memLeGrand bers and staff to continue our mission of opening, maintaining and defending foreign markets.” During his tenure with USGC in Mexico, LeGrand has also led efforts for U.S. grains including increasing U.S. DDGS demand, cultivating both large and small craft brewers to purchase more U.S. barley and encouraging sorghum use by Mexican livestock producers. LeGrand holds a bachelor’s degree from Oklahoma State University in international business.

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Green Plains appoints Simpkins chief financial officer Green Plains Inc. has promoted Patrich Simpkins, chief development officer, to chief financial officer of Green Plains and Green Plains Partners LP. Past CFO John Neppl has been appointed executive vice president and CFO of Bunge Ltd. “John has been instrumental in driving the success of our portfolio optimization plan to date, which was launched a year ago,” said Todd Becker, Green Plains president and CEO. “We appreciate John’s many contributions to Green Plains during his tenure and we wish him great success in his new position.” Neppl said, “Working at Green Plains has been a great experience for me and I am grateful for the opportunity to have been a part of the company. There is a strong, dedicated management team in place to complete the portfolio optimization plan and position the company for the future.” Simpkins has served as chief development officer since October 2014, previously serving as chief risk officer from October

2014 through August 2016, and as executive vice president of finance and treasurer from May 2012 to October 2014. Before Green Plains, Simpkins held a number of senior management positions with SensorLogic Inc., TXU Corp., Duke Energy Corp. and Louis Dreyfus Energy. “Patrich has been a key member of the Green Plains management team, driving our strategic objectives for the last five years,” Becker said. “Patrich demonstrates significant leadership qualities and his experience and knowledge of the company will serve us well in his new role as our CFO.” In addition, Paul Kolomaya, executive vice president of commodity and finance, has been promoted to chief accounting officer. Kolomaya had served as executive vice president of commodity and finance since February 2012. Before joining Green Plains in August 2008 as vice president of commodities and finance, Kolomaya was employed by ConAgra Foods Inc.

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Vilsack receives 2019 George Washington Carver Award The Biotechnology Innovation Organization has awarded former U.S. Department of Agriculture Secretary and former two-term Governor of Iowa Tom Vilsack the 12th annual George Washington Carver Award for Innovation in Industrial Biotechnology. The award will be presented on July 10 during a plenary session at the 2019 BIO World Congress on Industrial Biotechnology and AgTech in Des Moines, Iowa. “I am humbled to receive this award,� Vilsack said. “Every day there are scientists and researchers in the biobased industry helping to meet the twin challenge of adapting to and mitigating the consequences of a changing climate while also increasing our capacity to feed an everincreasing world population in a safe and sustainable way.� “Secretary Vilsack has been one of the strongest advocates in promoting America’s biobased economy,� said James Greenwood, BIO president and CEO. “From his time serving as governor of Iowa— America’s top ethanol producer and a leading state in biomass and renewable chemical production—to his leadership at USDA, Secretary Vilsack consistently championed policies that advanced industrial biotechnologies and grew America’s rural economy.� The George Washington Carver award is sponsored by the Iowa Biotechnology Association. “Secretary Vilsack represents a leader who has tirelessly championed biotechnology, and truly embodies the characteristics of George Washington Carver,� said Jessica Hyland, executive director of the Iowa Biotechnology Association. “Through this award, we recognize his focus on ensuring biotechnology in its diverse forms

can thrive. IowaBio is proud to have Secretary Vilsack receive this award. He has contributed so much to Iowa and to this country through his service and leadership. His impact on advancing biotechnology and recognizing its impact on rural economy is unmatched.� As the longest serving cabinet appointee in President Barack Obama’s administration, Vilsack serving as secretary of USDA from 2009-17, Vilsack championed the biobased economy as one of the four pillars that support our country’s rural economy. As the two-term governor of Iowa from 1999 to 2007, Vilsack was a strong supporter of the role of biotechnology for both food production and industrial processes. During his tenure, he was chair of the Governors Biotechnology Partnership and the Governors Ethanol Coalition as well as vice chair of the National Governors Association’s committee on Natural Resources, where he developed policies around farming and energy. Vilsack currently serves as the president and CEO of the U.S. Dairy Export Council, where he provides strategic leadership and oversight of global promotional and research activities, regulatory affairs and trade policy initiatives.

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PERSONNEL Corporate management

71%

(owner, partner, CEO, COO, etc.)

General manager

% 45%

Controller/CFO

7%

Plant manager

23%

37% 29% %

2%

21% 16%

Commodities manager Lab manager Maintenance manager Operations manager

2%

Energy center/utilities manager Environmental, health & safety

6% 16%

3% 19% 10%

43% 43 3

65% % 35%

30%

11% % 20% 37% 4% 8%

32%

54% 4% %

14% 1 4% 4% 2% 8% 8%

Operator Lab technician Maintenance technician

28%

Plant engineer

3%

Accounting/HR Office/admin r more

$200,000 o

150,000

$199,999-$

32% 32 2

53%

2%

Lead operator

69%

44% 26% 2 6% 5,000

$99,999-$7

100,000

$149,999-$

BREAKING DOWN

THE DATA

Ethanol Producer Magazine reports the results of its 2019 Salary and Job Satisfaction Survey, with comparisons to previous years’ figures. By Lisa Gibson

22 | ETHANOL PRODUCER MAGAZINE | JULY 2019

7% 29% 40 hours

45-49 hours

Salary Ranges As reported by 51 senior managers. The largest percentage in each job title is highlighted for emphasis. 2% 2% 12% 2%

34%

10% 0% % 4% %

32%

35% 5% % 33% 3% 10% 12% 2% 22% 2% %

17% 2% 2% 21% 4%

4%

31% 31%

99-$60,000

2%

7%

37% %

30% %

10% 0% % $74,9

7%

24% 29% 6% 15% 17% 0,000

$59,999-$5

Seventy-one percent of corporate management personnel in the ethanol industry are earning more than $200,000 per year, along with 45% of general managers, 7% of chief financial officers and 2% of plant managers, according to Ethanol Producer Magazine’s 2019 Salary and Job Satisfaction Survey. On the opposite

14%

41% %

44% 4

31%

1 18%

54%

0,000 $49,999-$4

12% 18% 2% 8% 19%

0,000

$39,999-$3

are earning less than $30,000. Everyone else falls somewhere in between. Ethanol Producer Magazine conducts the survey every two years. It’s sent to about 2,000 individuals working at ethanol plants and provides a snapshot of turnover, pay, benefits, key job-satisfaction factors, and more, for the previous 12 months. This year, we asked if respondents had been contacted by a headhunter. Fifty-nine percent said yes. Still, only 2% of managers rated headhunting as a very effective method to fill open positions in their plants; 31% said someend of the spectrum, 4% of energy center/ times effective. Forty-eight percent said proutilities managers and 2% of lab technicians moting from within has been very effective.

4%

2%

30,000

Less than $

Along those lines, about 10% of respondents said they are actively looking for a new job, while about 47% said they’d consider a good opportunity if it came up. Only 11.76% of plants reported no turnover in the past 12 months. Managers said 93% of their turnover was employees leaving for jobs outside the ethanol industry. Twentyeight percent of managers said they plan to add positions, while 72% have no changes planned to staff size. No managers reported plans to cut positions. In 2017, about 90% of respondents had received a bonus in the previous 12 months, compared with 83% on this year’s Continued on page 27 ETHANOLPRODUCER.COM | 23

PERSONNEL

73%

100%

77%

40%

TURNOVER

80%

of plants are at 96 to 100% capacity

60%

20%

of plant employees receive annual performance reviews

0%

Retired

Left for another position at another ethanol plant

Left for another position outside of the industry

Left for another position inside the industry

AGE

65 or older 60 – 64

Other

41%

55 – 59 50 – 54

of senior managers say they have succession planning in place, down from 60% in 2017

45 – 49 40 – 44 35 – 39 30 – 34 25 – 29

50%

Under 25 0%

5%

10%

15%

20%

40%

30%

INCLUDING ALL LOCATIONS & EMPLOYERS,

about how long have you worked in the ethanol industry? 24 | ETHANOL PRODUCER MAGAZINE | JULY 2019

20%

10%

30+ years

20-29 years

15-19 years

10-14 years

7-9 years

5-6 years

3-4 years

1-2 years

less than 1 year

0%

59%

WHAT IS THE

have been contacted by a headhunter in the past 12 months

77%

received a raise in the past 12 months

73%

have worked at one ethanol plant in the past 10 years

18%

HIGHEST LEVEL OF EDUCATION

40% 30% 20% 10%

get time and a half, 77% are not compensated for overtime

WHAT IS

you have completed?

50%

your gender?

0%

Some high school

High school graduate /G.E.D.

24% Male

Some college

College graduate

Post-grad work

Post-grad degree(s)

Other

HOW MANY ETHANOL

5 or more

PRODUCTION FACILITIES

have you worked for in the past 10 years, including your current facility?

4

Female

Post high school vocation/ technical

3

2

1

76% 0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

70%

80%

ETHANOLPRODUCER.COM | 25

PERSONNEL 5%

13% 55-59 hours

16% 50-54 hours

60-69 hours

38%

45-49 hours

1%

70 hours or more

JOB SATISFACTION

how important is each of the following to your job satisfaction? 5=Very Important | 1=Not at all important weighted average

HOURS

IN A WORK WEEK

98% work full time

21%

41-44 hours

Challenging work

5% 40 hours

Opportunities to advance Job security Competitive salary Good benefits package Recognition by employers Flexible hours Manageable workload Positive atmosphere Short commute Working for the renewable fuels industry 1

2

3

4

5

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2%

Less than 40 hours

83%

received bonuses in the past 12 months, compared to 90% in 2017; 14% in 2019 because of a promotion or change in responsibility

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26 | ETHANOL PRODUCER MAGAZINE | JULY 2019

ARE YOU LOOKING

for a job outside your current facility? 0.39%

Other

9.84%

Yes, I am actively looking

36.22%

6.3%

No, but I am strongly considering a new job search

No, I am not considering a new job at the present time

47.24%

No, but I would consider a good opportunity if it came along

Continued from page 23

survey. Eighty-four percent of respondents reported a recent raise in 2017, while 77% reported one on this year’s survey. The percentage of plant managers in the $200,000plus range, at 2%, is down from 5% in 2017. Chief financial officers in the $200,000

range decreased from 13% to 7%, while general managers increased from 39% to 45% and corporate management increased from 60% to 71%. In 2017, the largest percentage of commodities managers earned $75,000 to

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$99,000, 34%, while this year’s survey shows the majority, 35%, earning $100,000 to $149,000. Environmental health and safety saw the largest percentage in the $60,000 to $74,999 range in 2017 (38%), but jumped to $75,000 to $99,000 in 2019 (53%). It’s interesting to note that the position had jumped back a bracket in 2017 from 2015. So, while raises and bonuses are down, many overall shifts in salary ranges still show increases. One large change in 2019 from 2017 results was the percentage of senior managers who have succession plans in place: 41%, down from 60%. Managers in 2019 reported their workforce’s experience came predominantly from agriculture, at 55.77%, with industrial manufacturing and labor tied for second at 40%. In 2017, managers reported industrial manufacturing as No. 1, followed by agriculture and then labor. But results show the ethanol industry is content. Compensation aside, 57% of respondents said they’re satisfied with their current positions and 29% said they are very satisfied, while 8% are unsatisfied and 6% are very unsatisfied. Author: Lisa Gibson Editor, Ethanol Producer Magazine 701.738.4920 lgibson@bbiinternational.com

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EFFICIENCY

WASTE

NOT

Greenfield Global’s ethanol plant in Quebec supplements natural gas with biogas power produced through anaerobic digestion of organic waste from 27 nearby cities. By Susanne Retka Schill

30 | ETHANOL PRODUCER MAGAZINE | JULY 2019

EFFICIENCY

FOOD AND FUEL: Greenfield Global’s ethanol plant in Varennes, Quebec, displaces 15 percent of its natural gas with biogas produced at the nearby SEMECS anaerobic digestion plant. SEMECS digests organic waste from about 27 cities, including household food waste. PHOTO: ISTOCK

ETHANOLPRODUCER.COM | 31

EFFICIENCY

Greenfield Global is taking diversification and the biorefinery concept up a notch. For more

than a year, the Canadian ethanol producer has been displacing about 15 percent of its natural gas demand at its 200 MMly (50 MMgy) ethanol plant in Varennes, Quebec, with biogas purchased from the SEMECS anaerobic digestion (AD) plant just across the street. Plans are being finalized to more than double the capacity of the SEMECS plant by 2022 and add process equipment to upgrade the biogas into renewable natural gas, as well as direct conversion of biogas to hydrogen. Hydrogen is a fuel for the future, says Jean Roberge, vice president of renewable energy strategies for Greenfield. “When looking at the trends worldwide, hydrogen is seen as a source of energy for transportation,” he says, adding that the provincial government in Quebec is promoting future adoption of electric cars and hydrogen fuel cells for buses and heavy transport. The Varennes AD plant is a result of another provincial policy. In 2009, the province announced its intention to ban the landfilling of organic waste by 2022, along with a program to subsidize qualifying AD and composting operations. Three regional county municipalities—MRC Marguerite d’Youville, MRC Vallée du Richelieu and MRC Rouville—joined forces to develop a project and sought an industrial partner. What emerged was a unique plan involving the municipalities and Biogaz EG, a joint venture between Greenfield and Groupe Valorr Inc., a waste treatment firm. The project qualified for a CA$30 million ($22.4 million) provincial subsidy toward its CA$45 million ($33.6 million) capital cost. The private/public structure has come with advantages. “Greenfield, through Biogaz EG, is a shareholder of SEMECS,” Roberge says. “Biogaz EG brings the technical expertise to the SEMECS plant, and 32 | ETHANOL PRODUCER MAGAZINE | JULY 2019

‘ We’re gaining expertise in different fields and enabling it to play in emerging energy markets. Hydrogen is soon to play an important role in the future energy basket in the world. In Europe, all you hear about is hydrogen.’ - Jean Roberge

Vice President of Renewable Energy Strategies, Greenfield Global

was awarded the contract for overall management and design and construction, as well as a 20-year operating contract for the plant.” Another advantage is a guaranteed feedstock—the three regional municipalities have jurisdiction over the handling and disposal of all the waste in the 27 cities they host, with a combined population of about 270,000. Not only are businesses and industries required to separate their organic waste, but households also separate their organic waste for curb-side, brown bin pickup.

Project Design

The Varennes AD plant is equipped with pulper and digestion technology from German company BTA International

EFFICIENCY

WINBCO TANK “On Line On Time”

ON THE JOB: A Greenfield Global employee monitors production at the 50 MMgy ethanol plant. PHOTO: GREENFIELD GLOBAL

BURNING GREENER: SEMECS (right) supplies biogas across the street to Greenfield Global’s ethanol plant in Varennes, Quebec. The SEMECS plant will double capacity by 2022. PHOTO: GREENFIELD GLOBAL

GmbH to treat source-sorted organics containing up to 10 percent contaminants. Trucks dump their loads in a building under negative pressure. A front-end loader dumps the material into a hopper, where it is conveyed into the pulper, a 32-cubic-meter vessel that utilizes water and hydraulic sheer forces to treat the waste. “The plastics and styrofoam float and a rake picks that up,” Roberge says. “The heavy fraction—stones, bones, cans—get sucked off the bottom. What remains in the middle is the mash that you use.” Some of the feedstock supplied by 25 industrial clients is clean, but the pulper system is robust enough to handle lessthan-ideal loads. “We have a yogurt company nearby and sometimes they bring a big batch and, other times, it could be all

the little cups filled with out-of-date yogurt. We don’t have anyone at the plant that will go cup after cup and open them up—the truck dumps the load on the floor and the pulper does its job. The yogurt comes out into the digester and the plastic floats on top and we’re done.” Designed to handle 40,000 metric tons of organic waste annually, the system produces about 18,000 tons of digestate—unconverted solids—that is applied to about 200 surrounding farms, many of which supply corn to the ethanol plant. “We do not sell the digestate to farmers, we give it to them,” Roberge says. While niche markets in Europe have valued the digestate as high as $500 per ton, no value was assigned in the SEMECS business plan, he says. “We could sign a long-term contract

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EFFICIENCY

on the biogas, but you cannot have a longterm contract on the digestate. I’m sure, in time, we can improve the product and give it a better value.” The digester produces 6.4 million cubic meters of raw biogas annually. If further cleaned, it would amount to 4 million cubic meters of pure methane. The ethanol plant, however, uses the raw biogas with just the water and trace sulfur removed, burning the remaining methane and carbon dioxide mixture in the ICM-designed plant’s thermal oxidizer. With more than a year in operation, the system has worked so well that six more cities want to join, resulting in plans to increase SEMECS capacity to 100,000 metric tons per year. Expansion plans include biogas cleanup and compression to renewable natural gas for injection into the natural gas pipeline, plus the addition of a hydrogen

‘ Our vision of a biobased economy is essential to how we think and operate at Greenfield.’ - Howard Field

President and CEO, Greenfield Global

production system. Part of the expansion plans will be undertaken by SEMECS and part is being developed by Greenfield. Together, the green energy projects will enhance Varennes’ status as a true biorefinery. The renewable natural gas, hydrogen, biogas and digestate fertilizer amplify the core products of ethanol, distillers grains, corn oil and carbon dioxide captured and converted to dry ice

by Praxair. “The benefit for Greenfield is it increases our business base and diversifies our portfolio,” Roberge says. “We’re gaining expertise in different fields and enabling it to play in emerging energy markets. Hydrogen is soon to play an important role in the future energy basket in the world. In Europe, all you hear about is hydrogen.”

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34 | ETHANOL PRODUCER MAGAZINE | JULY 2019

EFFICIENCY

Greenfield Diversifies

The new projects at Varennes are the latest of several waste-reducing innovations at Greenfield. Its Chatham, Ontario, plant has been piping carbon dioxide and waste heat to a nearby tomato greenhouse. The company has ongoing research and development on alcohol production from industrial waste, cheese waste being one example, Roberge says. Varennes has a cellulosic ethanol research program and continues to work on hydrogen and AD technologies. Diversification has long been a business strategy for Greenfield. The company was founded in 1989 as Sunroot, opening an industrial alcohol plant in Tiverton, Ontario. It acquired the packaging assets of Commercial Alcohols shortly after and adopted that name. In 1997, its Chatham plant opened and the company acquired Pharm-

co Products, a brand that is still used for its specialty chemicals. The company rebranded as Greenfield Ethanol and expanded into fuel ethanol, opening the plant in Varennes in 2007 and another in Johnstown, Ontario, in 2008. In 2013, it adopted the name Greenfield Specialty Alcohols and in 2017, Greenfield Global. The company produces 111 MMgy of fuel ethanol and 37 MMgy of industrial-, food- beverage-grade alcohol, of which 16 MMgy is pharmaceutical-grade alcohol and specialty chemicals. Greenfield has continually invested in innovation, says Howard Field, president and CEO. “Today, we are the largest ethanol producer in Canada and a leading producer of many grades of specialty alcohols. But we also produce and sell hundreds of products to thousands of life science, food,

flavor, fragrance and beverage customers in more than 50 countries worldwide.” Greenfield’s renewable energy division is focused on making a meaningful contribution to developing the low-carbon economy. “Our vision of a biobased economy is essential to how we think and operate at Greenfield,” Field says. “Like ethanol, we believe hydrogen and fuel cell technologies are essential in combatting climate change. So much of what we are working on aligns with hydrogen in the low-carbon economy; it’s a tremendous, innovative business platform for us. At the same time, we are helping solve real environmental challenges being faced by communities, governments and industry alike.” Author: Susanne Retka Schill Freelance journalist retkaschill@yahoo.com

EDUCATION

Room

To Grow

The Nebraska Ethanol Board and the University of Nebraska-Lincoln bring targeted training to ethanol producers. By Matt Thompson

Although workshops offered through a partnership between the Nebraska Ethanol Board and the University of Nebraska-Lincoln are hosted in Nebraska, Hunter Flodman says ethanol plants from all over the industry have shown interest. In fact, the location of one of the

courses was changed to accommodate attendees from across the country. “We had so much out-of-state interest from California all the way to Illinois, and everywhere in between, that we decided we wanted to move it closer to a major airport,” he says. Flodman is an assistant professor of practice in UNL’s chemical engineering depart-

36 | ETHANOL PRODUCER MAGAZINE | JULY 2019

ment, and a technical advisor for the Nebraska Ethanol Board. And he helps lead the Process Control Essentials workshops offered through UNL’s Nebraska Manufacturing Extension Partnership and the Nebraska Ethanol Board. The groups also offer a process safety course. “We were able to identify a need in the industry to optimize and to increase efficiency of ethanol plants,” Flodman says of the process control course. “Probably the basic need for that optimization is to make sure the plants are utilizing their basic process control system, or their distributed control system (DCS).” For a plant’s DCS to operate as efficiently as possible, Flodman says it needs to be in automatic, or closed-loop, mode. But when issues arise, plants often run the system in manual mode. “That can lead to inefficiencies resulting in a loss of profit for the company,” he says.

EDUCATION

HANDS-ON: The Process Control Essentials Workshop is offered through the Nebraska Manufacturing Extension Partnership at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln and the Nebraska Ethanol Board. Pictured, from left to right, are student Stephen Schlender, instructor Scott Harmeier, instructor Hunter Flodman, student Shawn Koelling, student Dayana Rodriguez and student Brieanne Todd doing coursework in 2016. PHOTO: NEBRASKA ETHANOL BOARD

ETHANOLPRODUCER.COM | 37

EDUCATION “Our target audience with the course would be plant operators, maintenance personnel and engineers that maintain the control equipment and the DCS at the plant,� Flodman says. The workshop involves reviewing concepts and case studies, as well as hands-on training in the chemical engineering unit operations lab at UNL. He and Scott Harmeier, of Archer Daniels Midland, developed the curriculum and instruct the workshop. “Participants get to practice tuning control loops and troubleshooting control loops using an Excel-based loop tuning software that we’ve developed just for this workshop, and we distribute it to the participants as part of the workshop,� Flodman says. The hands-on portion makes up about half of the workshop, and the other half involves classroom work. This year’s process control course will be Aug. 6-7 in Lincoln. Financial assistance for process control and safety course attendees from Nebraskabased ethanol plants is available through the Nebraska Ethanol Board, Flodman says. “The Nebraska Ethanol Board wanted to give back to a lot of the plants here in Nebraska,� he says, adding that Nebraska-based ethanol employees can receive $300 tuition reimbursement for the process control workshop, and $400 reimbursement for the process safety workshop. The two courses are fairly young—process control has been offered three times since

‘One plant, after taking the [process control] course the first time we taught it, reported an annual cost savings of $150,000, an annual sales increase of $60,000, $14,000 reinvestment in employee skills and training for workforce practices, and one job retained, as a direct result of attending the course,’ - Hunter Flodman

Assistant Professor of Practice, University of Nebraska-Lincoln Chemical Engineering Technical Advisor, Nebraska Ethanol Board

its inception in 2016, and process safety has been offered twice. But, so far, Flodman says the response from participants has been positive, with some plants sending multiple employees to the process control workshop. “It’s always been different people from the same plant,� he says. “That’s what I would recommend for this course. “One plant, after taking the [process control] course the first time we taught it, reported an annual cost savings of $150,000, an annual sales increase of $60,000, $14,000 reinvestment in employee skills and training for workforce practices, and one job retained, as a direct result of attending the course,� Flodman says.

$*5$

He adds that the financial impacts reported by 16 companies that sent employees to both the process safety and process control workshops in the 2017-2018 fiscal year totals $2.37 million. “We’re giving them things they can take back and use and have a direct impact on their day-to-day operations and their bottom line. “We are seeing positive feedback from the plants,� Flodman says, adding results from National Institute of Standard and Technology surveys have been positive, too. The Nebraska MEP follows up with the plants within a year after the course, he adds.

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EDUCATION

DOWN TO BUSINESS: The University of Nebraska-Lincoln and the Nebraska Ethanol Board have teamed up to offer process control and process safety training for the ethanol industry. The process control essentials workshop includes both classroom and hands-on experience tuning control loops. PHOTO: NEBRASKA ETHANOL BOARD

Safety First

The process safety workshop—which this year has been renamed “The OSHA Regulatory Approach to Process Safety Management”—is similarly sponsored by the Nebraska Ethanol Board and the UNL’s Nebraska MEP, but is led by professionals from the

Center for Chemical Process Safety, a branch of the American Institute of Chemical Engineers. “They have extensive experience in process safety,” Flodman says. “They’re required to have a minimum of 30 years of experience working in process safety.” A process safety management program is required by OSHA and the U.S. EPA, Flod-

man says. “Process safety management is intended to prevent severe damage to equipment that may lead to catastrophic fires, explosions or toxic releases,” he says. “These incidents have the potential to injure workers or neighboring residents and so the ethanol industry is required by federal regulations to have this management program in place.”

ETHANOLPRODUCER.COM | 39

EDUCATION

ON CAMPUS: The Novozymes campus in Blair, Nebraska, is the site for the Nebraska Manufacturing Extension Partnership’s OSHA Regulatory Approach to Process Safety Management workshop. PHOTO: NOVOZYMES

where the chemical and oil industry is, but not Flodman says there aren’t many opportu- as many in this area of the country just because nities for safety training in ethanol-producing there’s not as much of that type of industry, states. “There’s a lot of them down in Texas especially in Nebraska,” he says. “So, we identi-

fied it as a potential opportunity that could help plants maintain their management program for process safety.” He adds that while there are similar courses offered through other professional organizations, they aren’t tailored for the ethanol industry. “We’re really trying to target the ethanol industry and really the course was designed for the ethanol industry,” he says. The first process safety course was held in Kearney, Nebraska, but as interest increased, the Nebraska MEP partnered with Novozymes and moved the course to Blair, Nebraska. “The two years that we taught the process safety workshop for the ethanol industry, we’ve had a total of 54 participants from 22 companies and representing 14 different states,” Flodman says. This year, the course will take place Oct. 8-10. Jonathan Dancy, biofuel account manager with Novozymes, says the partnership with the Nebraska MEP began after receiving feedback from attendees of Novozymes’ maintenance manager’s workshop. “They were happy with what we had offered in that workshop, but they also communicated there was a need for better

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EDUCATION safety training,” he says, adding that the tuition collected from the course goes to the American Institute of Chemical Engineering. “It was kind of a perfect match and a continuation of an existing relationship that was already in place with our Blair facility and UNL.” Dancy says he was a “light attendee” of the first safety course. “These instructors were so good at keeping it relevant and interesting to keep the audience engaged,” he says. “They have all that personal experience. Lots of stories that they can insert to keep it interesting. Lots of group work activity where they can get together and work through these different case studies. There’ll be slide decks where you go over material, and you drive it home with an exercise or an activity that really makes it more fun and engaging.” And keeping the workshop engaging is important, Dancy says. “Why do we go to work? It’s so that we can have a good life otherwise and come home safely. It’s such a critical part of the overall goal. “We’re exceptionally pleased and thankful for the relationship that we’ve got with

(the Nebraska MEP),” he says. “It’s a win all around, really. If you think about all the people that are involved, everyone benefits in this one.” Dancy says it’s time for the course to branch out beyond Nebraska. “We’ve hit a lot of the accounts in Nebraska, so this year the focus is going to be on customers in other states,” he says.

Continuing Education

Flodman says there is potential for more advanced courses, particularly process control courses, in the future. “This is a field that’s always changing, and it’s always improving because it is involved with technology and computers and sensors,” he says. And the Nebraska MEP will offer an animal food safety course this year that will focus on potential hazards with the production of distillers grains. Bismark Martinez, project director with Nebraska MEP, says the Food Safety Modernization Act requires plants to have a staff member who understands the production system and how to control it. “By-

products in the ethanol industry, in certain cases, may have some mycotoxins in it,” he says. “And when that byproduct is diverted to animal food, that could be a problem. “The whole idea is just to make the people understand what the minimum requirements under FDA are and be able to produce safe dried distillers grains, in this case,” he says. The animal food safety course isn’t eligible for tuition reimbursement like the other two courses are. Martinez says the Nebraska MEP received a grant to offer the course in Kansas and Missouri, in addition to Nebraska. Registration for process control, process safety and animal food safety courses is available on the Nebraska MEP’s website: nemep. unl.edu. Author: Matt Thompson Associate Editor, Ethanol Producer Magazine 701.738.4922 mthompson@bbiinternational.com

ETHANOLPRODUCER.COM | 41

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TECHNOLOGY

PARTNERS IN

PROSPECTING

A predictive technology from the paper mill industry is making its way into ethanol, tying into main databases to plan and troubleshoot. By Matt Thompson

Patti Sprouse, co-founder and president of Bonanza Associates, describes her company’s predictive modeling software, Prospector, as both a flight simulator and GPS for ethanol plants. It’s similar to a flight

simulator, she says, because “it allows the clients to really practice running the plant in different ways, without anybody getting hurt or bad decisions [being] made that are going to have costly implications.” 44 | ETHANOL PRODUCER MAGAZINE | JULY 2019

And Prospector is comparable to a GPS unit because it allows plants to see how changes within the plant will affect future operations, she says. “You get off track and you want to reset. So maybe you had to take a little detour and you still want to go to this destination. You just reset your GPS and say, ‘Take me from here,’ and the same thing with the model.” The software has been used in the paper mill industry, but was recently adopted by Show Me Ethanol in Carrollton, Missouri. Sprouse says the decision to explore

using Prospector in ethanol plants came from Ronnie Hise, Bonanza Associates vice president, whose son has experience with biofuels. “He was working on his master’s degree and working with a group of people looking at algae as a route to biodiesel,” Hise says. “He and I got to talking about what the plants looked like that did that sort of thing, and then I paid him to do a little research for us, in fact, to look at ethanol plants while he was a grad student.”

PREDICTING EFFICIENCY: Patti Sprouse, cofounder and president of Bonanza Associates, and Brian Pasbrig, plant manager at Show Me Ethanol in Carrollton, Missouri, stand near a pile of dried distillers grains at SME. SME is the first ethanol plant to use Bonanza’s Prospector software. PHOTO: BONANZA ASSOCIATES

Sprouse says the similarities between the paper and ethanol industries made it easy to adapt Prospector to ethanol plants. Producers in both the paper and ethanol industries have inventories of partially finished products, and Prospector is able to accurately predict progress. One difference, she notes, is the fermentation process. “We had to do quite a bit of changing, especially around the fermentation, because we had never done something like fermentation processes,” she says. “We have modeled batch digesters in the paper industry,

but the batch time is two to three hours, not two to three days. The scheduling of the filling and emptying of each fermenter, along with modeling multiple chemical additions were a challenge.” “Another characteristic that we thought fit very well with the fuel ethanol manufacturing plants and the paper industry is, there didn’t seem to be any one tool that would allow people to look at both the operations and the financial aspect,” Hise says. The software is customized for each mill or plant that uses it, and Sprouse says

the first step involves setting up a detailed mass and energy balance of the plant for the software to work with. “If you have a historian or if you have an external schedule, we’ll bring that into the model to start with,” she says. “The first hour of the model shows where everything is running right now. And then as time goes on, the next hours are predicted based on the past using mathematical and statistical formulas.” Sprouse adds that it takes six to eight weeks to create an individualized model for a plant. “It sounds fairly complicated, but ETHANOLPRODUCER.COM | 45

TECHNOLOGY

our model is robust and quick, and so it can do a lot of these analyses for us,� she says. And once that model is built, the software allows the plant’s entire staff to be on the same page. “You have a plan and anybody in the whole plant can open their computer and see this plan that’s predicted, and you can see the past and the current time and the future all in one shot,� Sprouse says. “It really promotes a lot of collaboration and coordination across the workforce in the facility.�

In Action

DATA-DRIVEN: This production summary from Show Me Ethanol's March 2019 outage was produced by Bonanza Associates' Prospector technology. PHOTO: BONANZA ASSOCIATES

Brian Pasbrig, plant manager at SME, says the plant has been using Prospector since late last year. “We’re very focused on using data that’s available to us and using technology to make our operation as efficient and successful as it can be,� he says. “When people approach us with technology-driven ideas and proposals, we generally will take those meetings. So that’s kind of how it started. They came to us, and technology’s exciting for us, so

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TECHNOLOGY

we decided to go ahead and collaborate with them.” And so far, Pasbrig says, the experience has been positive. “We’ve used the tool very successfully with our spring outage,” he says. “We were able to better plan the entire coming in and coming out of the shutdown and managing the process, the tanks and just managing the entire operations side of the shutdown.” It was particularly handy in emptying tanks to ready them for inspection and cleaning, he says. “Using a common tool for everybody to refer to made it a lot smoother; made the production planning going in and coming out of shutdown a lot more transparent. It really helped a lot.” He adds the plant has also used the tool for production planning, as well as troubleshooting. “Since it’s a mass balance, if some part of the process—say the centrifuge aspect of an ethanol plant—if that’s not running quite right and it’s slowly degrading in performance, you can pick that up much more quickly because Prospector has charts that

SHOW ME STATE: Brian Pasbrig, plant manager at Show Me Ethanol, guides Patti Sprouse, co-founder and president of Bonanza Associates, and Alex Sprouse, Patti’s daughter and Bonanza Associates summer intern, on a tour of SME in Carrollton, Missouri. PHOTO: BONANZA ASSOCIATES

ETHANOLPRODUCER.COM | 47

TECHNOLOGY

‘When a supplier comes to us and has a trial proposal, we can use the predictive tool to simulate the trial before we even think about implementing it.’ - Brian Pasbrig

Plant Manager, Show Me Ethanol

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are monitoring things on an hourly basis,” Hise says. The troubleshooting part of the software, he adds, is one of the more advanced functions. “Our experience with the paper industry is that over time, people become more comfortable using it and start to use some of the more advanced features, beyond planning for outages.” And Prospector is currently being updated to help plants evaluate chemical trials, Pasbrig says. “When a supplier comes to us and has a trial proposal, we can use the predictive tool to simulate the trial before we even think about implementing it.” It’s a suggestion from SME that wasn’t considered by the paper industry, Sprouse says. “With ethanol plants, it seems that trials are a pretty big part of their operations, where you’ve got very expensive chemicals—the alpha-amylase, glucoamylase, yeast and other important enzymes” she says. “So, we’re really focusing right now on building a great add-in for him [Pasbrig] where he can try adding a trial chemical at different points in the system, allowing him to predict the operational and financial outcomes.” Hise says the trial evaluation aspect of the software is still in the prototype stage. “But we’ll be testing it very soon with SME and we feel very comfortable it’s going to work.” In addition to forecasting plant operations, the software can also forecast financial outcomes of operational changes, Sprouse says. “We also have financial reports, so users can quantitatively compare between different plans, and that’s really valuable if you’re coming up on an outage and you want to try different scenarios,” she says.

A New Approach

Pasbrig says Prospector differs from other systems ethanol plants are currently using in that it can predict plant outcomes from small operational changes. “I don’t

TECHNOLOGY

know that there’s a lot of facilities that have an active mass balance predictive model that says, ‘If I do this very small process change, here’s how it affects the entire plant,’� he says. “Usually, the operator in the control room can take a stab at that, but this tool actually tells you if I change just one small thing, the—centrifuge feed—it tells me how it’s going to change the water balance on the front end in four days.� Sprouse agrees. She says in both the ethanol and paper industries, prospective customers tell her they already have a spreadsheet that can do what Prospector promises. But Prospector is different, she says. “Prospector models the entire plant, so it’s not just optimizing one department or one piece of equipment. It’s optimizing the entire facility so everybody’s on the same page and there’s one vision for how the plant plans to run.� Pasbrig says, “We can go out and look three or four or five days ahead, or even two weeks ahead, and predict what the plant’s going to be doing a lot quicker, easier, and again, we have this common tool that we can use instead of everybody having their own way of looking at it and their own spreadsheets and their own outlooks.� Although Prospector uses historical plant data to predict future operations, it isn’t tied directly into a plant’s distributed control system (DCS), Sprouse says. “We don’t control anything. We’re more of an advisory product for the people in the plant to use,� she says. “Specifically, it’s not tied in to the DCS, but it’s pulling historian data,� Pasbrig says. “All of our operations are combined into one central database, and Prospector’s tying into that database. “I think a tool like this would be beneficial in most plants,� he says. Hise says that while Prospector has been used primarily in the pulp and paper industry, it was designed to be a tool used by any manufacturing industry. “It just

seems like ethanol plants are a good fit for Bonanza Associates,� he says. Sprouse notes that Prospector allows plant staff to use their time more efficiently. “A lot of plants tend to look back, and they really don’t have a lot of time for looking back. Prospector is really a forward-looking product, so you’re constantly saying, ‘OK,

this is what’s coming up next,’ and make decisions. So we hope that using our product allows them to focus on other important decisions.� Author: Matt Thompson Associate Editor, Ethanol Producer Magazine 701.738.4922 mthompson@bbiinternational.com

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TO THE POINT: Greg Alber, of the Iowa Corn Promotion Board, gestures out over the Kashima Port northeast of Tokyo, from the top of silos at a port facility and feed mill. The port visit coincided with the corn quality rollout in Japan in January 2018. Cary Sifferath, the U.S. Grains Council's senior director of global programs (left), and representatives from other corn groups and Japanese corn organizations also attended the tour. PHOTO: U.S. GRAINS COUNCIL

AROUND THE

WORLD

Several countries are making legislative changes that bode well for U.S. ethanol. By Brian Healy

There is new-found global record 29 billion gallons. In just momentum toward implement- the past two years, more than a dozen countries have announced significant expaning or expanding current etha- sions of their ethanol policies. The timely nol policies, while global etha- expansion of policies reflects heightened nol production has reached a global awareness of environmental issues,

as countries set goals to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. The U.S. Grains Council and U.S. industry partners are working globally to expand the use of ethanol, normalize its use as a clean energy component of the trans-

CONTRIBUTION: The claims and statements made in this article belong exclusively to the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of Ethanol Producer Magazine or its advertisers. All questions pertaining to this article should be directed to the author(s).

50 | ETHANOL PRODUCER MAGAZINE | JULY 2019

POLICY

FIRST TO PORT: The first shipment of U.S. dried distillers grains with solubles arrived in China in December 2009. China is planning to implement E10 nationwide, opening a 4 billion-gallon market. PHOTO: U.S. GRAINS COUNCIL

port sector, and build partnerships with countries and industries looking to expand ethanol use. As more countries look to ethanol as a possible solution, the U.S. industry continues to provide technical assistance around policy development and implementation, as well as handling and logistics information, while supporting the role for trade in ensuring policy success. The new and expanded policies fall into two key categories: environmental benefits and agricultural producer benefits. GHG reduction is a principal component of many of the policy changes for the following countries, meaning that if U.S. producers want to have market access, they must continue to invest in technologies and improvements that lower ethanol’s carbon intensity.

Brazil

RenovaBio, Brazil’s new ethanol policy that goes into effect at the beginning of 2020, has the potential to nearly double the Brazilian ethanol market, currently the second-largest ethanol market after the U.S. Ethanol expansion under the new policy is expected to be centered almost exclusively in the hydrous ethanol market, or E100.

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Canada

Canada is developing a Clean Fuel Standard that includes liquid, gaseous and solid stream fuels with an overall goal to reduce GHG emissions by 30 megatons by 2030 to meet its Paris agreement commitments. The current Canadian renewable fuels regulations require an average re-

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ETHANOLPRODUCER.COM | 51

MEASURING UP: Corn in China is evaluated during a U.S. Grains Council tour. PHOTO: U.S. GRAINS COUNCIL

newable fuel content of at least 5 percent based on the volume of gasoline the country produces or imports, but the nationwide average is higher because provinces like Ontario blend at higher levels. Under the current timeline, the federal policy is expected to go into effect in 2021. Concurrently, individual provinces have begun to announce their own expanded ethanol policies, led by Ontario moving to E10 by 2020 and further expanding to 15 percent renewable content in 2025.

Japan

As of April 2018, U.S. ethanol qualifies under the updated Japanese biofuel policy. Ethyl tert-butyl ether (ETBE) is a component of gasoline used in Japan as an oxygenate to more completely combust fuel partially composed of ethanol. Until the April 2018 decision, only Brazilian ethanol could be used in ETBE destined for the Japanese market. In the coming years, Japan is expected to consider expanding the total use of ETBE or direct blending.

European Union

Under its new renewable policy, Renewable Energy Directive II, the EU is maintaining the current cap on cropbased biofuels at 7 percent, rather than decline to 3.8 percent by 2030 as had been initially proposed. This policy calls for ethanol suppliers to meet certification requirements demonstrating GHG reductions of at least 50 percent for both the production facility and feedstock.

Ireland

Ireland has a plan to move to E10 starting in 2019. Though its demand is relatively small, Ireland can be a leader in ethanol use within the EU community.

52 | ETHANOL PRODUCER MAGAZINE | JULY 2019

POLICY

United Kingdom

Like Ireland, the U.K. is considering the opportunity for expanding its ethanol use to E10 by 2020.

Bolivia

Supporting domestic agricultural production is another major consideration for the recent policy announcements. In spring 2018, Bolivia announced that by 2019 its gasoline will require E10, and by 2025, the country plans to move to E25. The goal of the program is to reduce fuel subsidies on imported gasoline and to support sugarcane and sorghum producers.

China

While the U.S. currently faces prohibitively high tariffs in the second-largest gasoline market in the world, China’s decision to implement an E10 nationwide ethanol policy has major implications for global ethanol demand. It would require significant expansion in domestic production to meet the more than 4 billion-gallon market at E10. China is in the process of implementing policies at the provincial level and is building out its own domestic infrastructure.

India

While imports of ethanol for fuel use are banned under current policy in India, the addition of new feedstocks is a significant development by the Indian government that has the potential to expand domestic production. Molasses, a byproduct of sugar processing, was the previous source of feedstock in Indian ethanol production, but spent grain and sugarcane juice now are allowed. The new biofuels policy goal in India is to achieve E20 by 2030.

Mexico

Mexico expanded the allowance of ethanol from E5.8 to E10, up from E0 in 2016. While this does not include the cities of Mexico City, Guadalajara and Monterrey, the Mexican market is significant in terms of demand at nearly 720 million gallons. Major fuel infrastructure linkages with the U.S. are already in place, and imports

to supplement domestic production would provide foreign exchange savings relative to other components of gasoline.

Vietnam

In early 2018, Vietnam started offering E5 at gas stations, achieving a national blend average of about E2.5. Vietnam’s goal is to replace the E5 option with E10 in 2020. Cassava is the primary feedstock in Vietnam, like Thailand and Nigeria, yet yields are currently quite low.

Russia

Poland, Slovakia, Czech Republic

Poland, Slovakia and the Czech Republic, also members of the EU, have announced their intent to move to E10, which would require legislation amendments and would likely not take place before 2022. As the global demand for ethanol increases and its use is normalized as an energy product, global trade will expand. Global engagement will be required to expand multilateral institution support and endorsement of ethanol across the transport sector.

Other countries are making moves to change or update their ethanol policies, which could impact the global market in years to come. Russia clarified its policy to define fuel-grade ethanol as distinct and separate from industrial use and potable ethanol.

Author: Brian Healy Manager of Ethanol Export Market Development U.S. Grains Council 202.789.0789 bhealy@grains.org

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