Whitefox successfully implements membrane system at ethanol plant

Whitefox Technologies has revealed that Redfield Energy has implemented a Whitefox ICE® Plus membrane dehydration system at its ethanol plant located in South Dakota.
This project is Whitefox’s first ICE Plus project in the US.
It represents a major milestone towards delivering net-zero benefits, while also debottlenecking the plant’s ability to deliver additional ethanol capacity. The project is estimated to be operational next year.
The Whitefox ICE Plus system is designed to work with Redfield’s existing dehydration technology and will provide an additional 12% capacity taking the plant to 70 MMGPY from Day 1, sized to get the Plant to 90 MMGPY over time.
The solution is, coupled with the ability to integrate and conserve a significant amount of energy, up to 5,000 BTU per gallon of ethanol produced.
The solution also reduces the demand for cooling water and provides the operational benefits associated with a Whitefox ICE solution in terms of reducing recycle streams and dehydrating ethanol in a continuous 24/7 process.
The Whitefox ICE Plus solution uses the same membrane technology associated with Whitefox ICE, which is currently being deployed in 11 US Ethanol plants.
Eric Baukol, CEO of Redfield Energy, said: “It’s an exciting time to be in the industry. If you had 10 CEO’s in a room they might map out that many different versions of the future for their biorefineries as far as which markets and products they intend to compete in.
"All of these versions of the future start with efficiencies and a drive toward making our Net Zero pledge a reality, and we feel we’re making a great step forward in that regard with this Whitefox project.”
Virginia Andrade, Whitefox engineering manager, commented: “Whitefox ICE Plus was developed as we listened to ethanol producers who were looking for enhanced energy savings as they considered the journey towards net-zero. The solution is ideal where the plant’s existing molecular sieves still have lifetime. ICE Plus is able to de-load the molecular sieves and provide additional lifetime to this technology, but also act as a stepping stone to finally replace molecular sieves and transition towards a sole membrane solution, Whitefox ICE XL when the time is right.”