Ethanol research center toasts new production line equipment
An ethanol research center installs a supplier's feeding and conveying equipment to ensure accurate and reproducible production results.
The National Corn-to-Ethanol Research Center (NCERC), Edwardsville, Ill., operates a full-scale ethanol pilot plant facility on the campus of Southern Illinois University Edwardsville. Ethanol producers, corn-seed-trait producers, equipment manufacturers, and other clients use the NCERC facility to research and test their ideas, products, and equipment that could potentially improve ethanol production. The facility's clients use the data generated during the ethanol production process to make their own processes more efficient and productive. Because of this, when designing the facility, the NCERC specified feeding and conveying equipment for the ethanol production line that's not only accurate and reliable, but can collect the material feedrates and other relevant operational data.