The new investment carried out by Bioagra in the Ethanol Production Plant “Goświnowice” includes a number of technological processes related to the production of ethanol and feed materials. The effect of these actions will be a 50% reduction in water vapor emissions from the feed material drying installation. This will reduce the intensity of the smell, as well as the consumption of water and energy needed for production.

For several years, the company has been implementing various solutions aimed at further reducing the plant’s impact on the natural environment and the company’s surroundings. However, the latest investment is one of the largest projects of this type in the history of the company. A number of improvements include many elements of the production installation and will be carried out together with the American company KATZEN, which is a supplier of innovative technological solutions for ethanol production plants. 

Bioagra points out that the investment will measurably reduce the plant’s demand for energy, water and gas. This will help the company keep up with competition from foreign companies and remain a leader in the region in the implementation of the postulates of a zero-emission economy. Thanks to the energy recovered from steam, the plant will reduce the consumption of natural gas by 10 percent. Reducing the use of this fossil fuel is a step towards making industrial activities independent of gas as an energy source, as well as reducing CO2 emissions. 

– The investment will bring many different benefits – says Mirosław Obarski from Bioagra – The most visible will be the halving of water vapor emissions, which is considered one of the so-called greenhouse gasses. However, the level of odor from the technological process will also be reduced. In the production process, the plant will use energy that has previously escaped with steam into the atmosphere – explains Mirosław Obarski.

The implementation is based, among others, on the “return” of energy from the end of the technological process to one of the initial stages of production. The energy taken away from hot water vapor, which is formed during the drying of the so-called feed material, will be used, among others, for heating the mash. At the same time, the company’s engineers will reduce the temperature of this process using the so-called low temperature cooking. To obtain energy from hot steam, it must be condensed. The water recovered in this way will be used in the plant for the mash preparation process.

The development of the solution and preparation for implementation took over two years. Its implementation will take almost half a year in total. For it to work, distant production stages must be connected with a network of technological pipelines. This requires numerous pumps, heat exchangers, expansion tanks and heaters. 

The investment requires high precision and technical advancement at many stages of implementation. The devices weighing many tons are installed between the elements of the existing infrastructure. Therefore, there is, for example, the need to install devices from the top, which requires the disassembly of part of the roofing. 

Bioagra constantly invests in solutions that reduce the impact on the natural environment and the surrounding area. The company has so far spent tens of millions of zlotys (PLN) to reduce the smell and sound intensity. A number of improvements and modifications contributed to the reduction of the sound intensity generated by the production installation. Bioagra in the Ethanol Production Plant “Goświnowice” has also launched a system for reducing the odor generated in the fermentation process, which has been in operation for several years.