EXTRACTING VALUABLE SUSTAINABLE RESOURCES

Established in 2004, Lincolnway Energy is a local leader in providing clean, renewable and domestically produced fuels. Over the last two decades, growing demand and an increasing focus on the development of the circular economy has seen the business expand into extracting a range of additional products, including beverage-grade carbon dioxide and corn oil.

Lincolnway Energy Plant Manager Curt Usgaard says the business’ main focus is on providing renewable energy that burns more cleanly and is less harmful to the environment.

“In recent years, this is being driven by environmental concerns and a big focus on reducing your carbon intensity. Things like alternative and renewable fuels, diversifying our co-products, and energy recovery have been behind a lot of project development,” says Curt.

“In the ethanol industry, we don’t have much waste. We can find uses for everything. We break down the corn, ferment all the corn sugar into alcohol, capture the CO2 produced during fermentation, distil off the alcohol and dry down the fermented product to create dry distiller’s grains. During the whole process we recover water to reuse in the plant, and we extract the corn oil.”

Extracting real value
To capture the valuable corn oil, which is a popular animal feed supplement, Lincolnway recently installed a GTech Echo 4 3-phase decanter to support their existing programme.

“Pound for pound, corn oil is the most valuable product we make in the plant,” says Curt. “So if we have any downtime on that machine, we're losing money.”

The new GTech machine has been in the plant since February 2024, and running almost constantly since.

Robust and effective
“We're a continuous process,” says Curt. “So the machine's running basically 24/7. We'll bring it down once a week, to grease the unit and do a clean cycle, but for the most part, it just sits there and runs. So you need robustness in the unit.”

Curt’s team was also keen to see how much the machine could handle, in order to maximize production.

“When we first started it up, we thought we could probably get up to feeding 60 gallons a minute. So over some days, we worked it up and got to those 60 gallons a minute, no problem.

“And then that question turned into, ‘how far can we go?’ And we kind of pushed it and we got up to 100 gallons per minute. And it handled it. No problem.”

Efficient, time-saving features
It's not only the running capabilities of the GTech Echo-4 that have impressed the Lincolnway team. Several design features have also made production more efficient – and the plant crew’s role easier.

“One thing I have noticed versus our other machine is, with our other machine, we only seem to get two phases out. We get a heavy phase and a light phase, which is the oil,” says Curt.

“But with the GTech, you get three phases – a solid, then a heavy phase, then an oil. So in that regard, I think it's more efficient.”

“I’ve also noticed that, with the GTech set weir, it maintains the load on the bowl. And I really like the adjustable paring pump angle – that’s pretty well automated.”

With increasing efficiencies in the fermentation process producing a more viscous material, which tends to clog older, disc-stack centrifuges, Curt says the GTech’s newer ‘bowl and scroll style’ can handle more of the product range with greater consistency.

“The older machines require a lot of labour and a lot of downtime and cleaning.”

“I also really like the cleaning features of the GTech. Every two weeks we do a clean in place. The GTech has a CIP mode that is automated – the GTech just does a lot of the work for us.”

Responsive support
Working with GTech has also been easy, with the team responsive to changes in software and any support needed. Working directly with GTech President Kevin Bell has also helped build the relationship.

“Kevin's a good guy. He's kind of a big part of making us feel comfortable with making this decision. Although, the first time I met him, I didn't even know he was the president – he kind of runs under the radar in that regard,” says Curt.

“The whole start-up crew – there’s a bunch of good guys down there. I don't think I met someone I didn't want to work with.”

The focus on increasing production of the valuable corn oil, and the confidence Lincolnway Energy has built in the technology, helped support the decision for the company’s two partner plants to each purchase a GTech machine of their own.

“We're definitely expanding. We’re currently working on a project that will increase our output by twenty percent,” says Curt.

“When we improve some kind of bottleneck in the plant, everything else has to come with it. And with corn oil being such a big revenue generator, we want to make sure we're ahead of the game and can take advantage of all that.”