Fluid Quip Technologies (FQT) is pleased to announce that the São Martinho Boa Vista unit in Quirinopolis, Goias, Brazil is exceeding projected performance including capacity and ethanol output.
The Sao Martinho plant utilizes FQT’s proprietary corn ethanol technologies, from corn receiving to DDGS drying. FQT integrated its Low Energy Distillation (LED)™ system and a Mechanical Vapor Recompression (MVR) system to achieve one of the lowest steam usage rates in the bioethanol industry while using low pressure steam from the São Martinho cogeneration turbines. The unit also utilizes FQT’s patented Selective Grind Technology™, Fiber ByPass™, and BOS Oil System™ which has allowed São Martinho to achieve ethanol and distillers corn oil yields among the highest in the industry.
“São Martinho saw the need for a low pressure and low energy distillation system allowing for a substantial reduction in energy usage, due to limitations on steam generation capacity and biomass availability,” said John Kwik, Executive Vice President of Fluid Quip Technologies. “This was a first of a kind distillation system operating at 1.5 bar making anhydrous ethanol, so we worked together to make the necessary adjustments that allowed the FQT engineering team to achieve the goals of maximizing ethanol and corn oil yields and substantially reducing energy usage. This is a real technology disruptor for the South American ethanol market.”
“The FQT designed distillation system has allowed us to get a very low steam usage, avoiding the need of investment on steam generation or additional biomass acquisition,” said Agenor Pavan, Chief Operations Officer at São Martinho. “We accomplished a plant that utilizes the latest ethanol technology for corn and have designed features and systems to integrate it into our existing cane unit to make the most thermically efficient cane and corn ethanol facility. The output capacity and yield of ethanol we are achieving with FQT are above the designed levels.”
Sao Martinho is a high-performing plant that has both cane and corn ethanol producing approximately 200 million liters of ethanol per year from corn. FQT provided the technology package, process engineering, procurement of key equipment, startup support, and training for this project.
