Trip to Ethanol Plants, September 10 thru September 13, 2005
Three people went on this trip:
Kim Scamman, Barton & Loguidice Engineer representing Town of Seneca Falls
Dick Pope, Engineer representing Bio-fuels,
Lucille Cook, Town Councilperson Seneca Falls
Benson , MnnAirport , MinnStanley , Wisc
100 Miles West100 Miles
Winnebago, Minnestoa
Steamboat Rock, Iowa
Journal 9/10/05 - STANLEY, WISCONSIN
Arrived MinnesotaSaturday, 9/10/05 - 4:45 PM, Met engineer, Dick Pope at Airport. We went directly to StanleyWisconsin. Stanley is approximately 100 miles east of the airport. Population 1,898.
We decided to ride around to observe the surrounding area. Businesses in close proximity were a Mini Warehouse, Chwala’s construction, Cooper Tires and Export Veneer Logs to name a few.
At 7:05 PM, Wind South/East 5-7 mph per engineers.
Odor Observations Desribed by engineers as:
1. Stale Beer Odor
2. Rancid - 500
3. Chemical - 700
4. Alcohol/Medicinal - 801
5. Malt/Barley
6. Hotel Indoor Swimming Pool (sour) – 516
7. Yeast – 418
Note: Odor is measured on a scale from 1 – 8. At the point an odor reaches the level of 3 people will recognize there is an odor. (Information shared by the engineers I accompanied.)
Interviewed home owner who lives ½ mile north of the plant. He shared the following:
1. Odor not too bad since air scrubber was installed.
2. Odor worse on week-ends – Scrubbers were put in to double capacity – they don’t run scrubbers on the week-end.
3. Wife upset because they can’t keep their windows clean because of the fall out.
4. Usually they get a south-east wind so they don’t get most of the odor.
5. This is an extremely rural area. He benefited because the plant put in natural gas and paved the road next to his house. All surrounding roads were not paved. .
We continued to travel the surrounding area. Continued testing to end of plume.
1. Plant smell still strong 1 mile away. Smell harsh, offensive, & strong.
2. Still smell Plant 2 miles away with wind gusts.
3. Smell Plant approximately 2 ½ miles away with wind gusts. Not offensive or harsh, according to engineers, maybe end of plume.
At plant site at 8:15 PM.
1. Weird taste in mouth experienced by all of us – maybe coming from the plant?
2. Only three cars in the parking lot – plant runs 24 hours X7.
Sunday 9/11/05
Kim & I experienced a funny taste (metallic) again on Sunday morning. Kim had burning eye sensation.
Spoke to an employee coming out of the plant. He said that they employ 35 to 40 people. We saw one building with machinery and no one inside. Employee said that is where they produce CO2 and it is done totally by computer.
There was a small leak of water coming from inside the plant moving past the cooling tanks. The water ran to a pipe , 18” – to 24”) that went under the road. The stream traveled into the field approximately 150-200 feet to a very good size pond (40x80). I took pictures of the pond.
¼ mile from house where we interviewed gentleman on Saturday evening:
Temperature – 70 degrees
Wind speed : 2.5-3 mph
1/8 mile from house – very strong odor
Plume – per Dick Pope – 200-300 yards width overall
Per Dick Pope – thermal oxidizers not capturing all the odors, they must have gone after the key sources.
Sunday, 9/11/05 continued:
Registered @ 7 on Scentometer
Per Kim i.e. At 7 = Sour
At 4 = grainy
Kim had been told mid-week that the Stanley Plant was planning a shutdown Sunday evening at 6pmfor repairs.
Went back at 9:46 am to County Highway 0. Approximately 2 miles away. No plume from stack but still a strong odor.
Interviewed 3 people we saw at a nearby Park. They shared the following::
1. Trucks spill mash on road. Safety hazard
2. Two families sold out to get away. They lived very close.
3. Steam complaints on windows. Plant didn’t do anything about the complaints because it was cheaper to pay the fines than to fix the problems. Plant finally fixed problem when fines got bigger (opinion of interviewees). (Note: Plant had been fined $300, 000 for n0n-compliance)
4. Odor better now – after filters (oxidizers) were added.
5. Plant is building new building to produce an artificial sweetener.
6. They don’t live near plant so smell doesn’t bother them.
7. Plant told them they would employee 35-40 employees, but they don’t.
8. Average plants should produce 60 million gallons.
Sunday 9/11/05
Per employees at the plant:
1. After 76 degrees you can’t see the plume coming out of the stack.
2. Only Yellow dent corn (high yielding) is used by the plant
We interviewed Manager of Plant Kevin Endres, Tom Aumer and Gary Suttheoff, a consultant in the business. The following is information they shared:
1. Employee 40 employees
2. Average wage $14 - $15 per hour & benefits
3. With boiler blow down steam they send 40,000 gals per day to the city. The sewer is a separate line and is paid for.
4. Have scrubbers on system
5. Safety Plans include Deluge Systems, Fire Departments trained and they have an emergency response plan.
6. How do they transport/receive: 70% rail, 30% truck, 25 rail cars at a time and 2 ½ trains per week.
7. Started shutting the plant down on Friday by making small adjustments in production. Totally shut down by Sunday afternoon.
8. Stanley Plant is a TITLE 5 PLANTnow; but is planning to drop below Title 5 level.
OshKosh, Wisc
Sunday 9/11/05continued: Left Stanley Wisconsin at 2 pm headed toward OshKosh, Wisc. , Population 62,916Relative humidity 50.8, winds 2.3-3 mph, S.W., Temp. 76.5
Time 7:12pm. This was not a plant that Bio-fuels suggested we visit.
1. No railway on property (there is rail behind the facility).
2. Very strong alcohol smell (beer distillery)
3. Registers @ 4 beer smell, also detects odor @ 7 – Not sure of smell
4. Has odor of decomposing solids w/sulphur component – per engineers.
5. Sour smell or grain heavy
6. Nasty taste on my tongue
7. Located on major highway – approximately 3-4 miles outside of the village.
8. No plume visible.
9. Due north 1 mile on parallel road – faint smell.
10. Can feel dryness in throat with metallic taste.
11. Two miles north on parallel road able to smell faintly.
12. Plant surrounded by farmland with scattered farm homes.
Monday, September 12, 2005, left OshKosh Wisc @ 7:30 am for Steamboat Rock, Iowa
Monday, September 12, 2005 - Steamboat Rock, Iowa
Today we plan to visit a plant in Steamboat Iowa. The name of the Plant is “Pine Lake Corn Processors.” This plant is owned by local area farmers, community members and Iowa Investors. This, like the others we visited, is also Delta T Corporation built.
We arrived at the plant at 12:50 pm. Steamboat Rock, Iowa Population is 400. The closest community is 4.5 miles, the next is Ackley 7 miles away, population 2,500 and the next is Iowa Falls 12 miles away, population 5,000. The tour will be lead by Steve Schmitt (Steve is Vice President of T.E. Iberson Company; a company that works with Delta T designing the grain handling portions of the plant). Steve is driving from Minneapolis to meet us here. When we arrived at the plant at 1 pm we were told the plant was shut down.
Steve shared the following information:
1. This plant utilizes well water
2. They use 170,000 gals of water per day.
3. 34,000 gallons of water is discharged per day.
4. They have boiler blow downs here. They return all non-contact water to the boiler.
5. They do not capture all of the CO2 at this plant but they do plan to capture all CO2 in Seneca Falls because there is a better market for it in our area.
6. There plant disposes of water by ponds and returns to ground water.
7. No evacuation plan, He said none was needed.
Question : Is the fermentation the reason you have a CO2 scrubber? It smells like beer. Ans: They have a newer CO2 scrubber at Steamboat Rock. They plan to expand from 20 mgy to 50 mgy (million gallons per year).
Question: How much discharge water per day? Ans: Rule of thumb 3 gallons water brought in per gal of production.
Question: Trains per day. Ans: No rail
Question: Deliveries per day. Ans.: 7.6 million bushels of grain a year. 40 trucks average per day. Answer based on 20 mgy plant is Seneca Falls will be bigger.
Question : Where do they store the ammonia & sulfuric acid and how much do they keep on the grounds? Ans.: Ammonia is in a 5,000 gallon tank which is a two week supply. Sulfuric acid is used in front-end process and is a hazardous chemical. I didn’t get the answer to how much is kept on the property.
Explained:
1 Ton of corn coming in equals
1/3 Ethanol
1/3 Mash (feed product) Dried distillers grains with solubles.
1/3 CO2
For every three bushels processed 1 bushel becomes animal feed.
Monday, September 12, 2005 - Steamboat Rock, Iowa – cont’d
During tour I asked how long it took to shut the system down today when they had a problem. Steve said it is usually done over a day or hourly time period.
Problems we noticed as walking through the plant:
1. Noticed leaking pump - identified by Steve as a malfunction
2. Evidenced very strong odor of ammonia in the plant. Steve called it a process upset. He determined that there was a leak.
3. Holding Pond outside of the plant is approximately 10 feet deep and is 100 x 200’ in size.
4. Odor comes from CO2 scrubber and odor comes off drier.
After Steve left, James Broghammer, Plant Manager, took over the meeting. James stated that:
1. HardenCounty is the largest producer of Hog Farming and is the #1 concern of the people in Iowa, Ethanol Plants are not a concern to locals.
2. The traffic impact is big.
3. There is no significant noise. (Very rural area)
4. Night Lighting is for safety
5. Burn off flame is 2 ½ ‘ to 3’ high. The pipe is located at the edge of the pond at this plant.
(This burns off displaced fumes from filling trucks)
6. Ethanol Plants have to have an integrated Contingency plan, it is required by law. OHSA required = 19 components
7. Unlike Steve Schmitt, James admitted that they do have an Evacuation Plan: They have a procedure that includes educating Firemen, notifying authorities, and shutting down. (He showed us a notebook)
Permitted Emissions from Plant / ControlVOC’s / CO2 Scrubber
Particulate Matter / Baghouse
CO2 Scrubber Emissions
VOC’s / ½ what is allowed
Methanol
Acetaldehyde
Acrolein
Dryer Emissions
Particulate Matter
Nitrogen Oxides (NOX)
VOC’s
Formaldehyde
Methanol
Acetaldehyde
Acrolein
Monday continued. Steamboat Rock. When we arrived we were told the plant was shut down earlier today for repairs (clogged pipe). We toured the plant while it was shut down. There was obvious odor within the plant.
Alcohol odor was extremely strong, breathe catching. Told by Steve that this was a “process upset – Must be a leak”.
Slurry/mash on the floor extremely was slippery. Since they were shut down the crew was using the time to clean up.
9/12/05 Monday 6 pm
We rode around IowaFalls looking for Ethanol Plant that James had told us about. They have railroad tracks through facility. Southerly wind 8 – 13.5 mph. (avg 9 mph). We can smell plant approximately 1 mile away.
Dick & Kim decided not to document this plant because it isn’t a Delta –T plant and we know the odor can travel upwards of 3 miles.
9/12/05 Monday, 8:30 pm
After dinner we decided to drive back to the plant that we had toured earlier today in Steamboat Rock.
The stack had intermittent plume coming from it. A huge amount would come out of the stack, stop and approximately I minute later another would escape. The assumption by the engineers was that something was not right. The engineers were going to find out why this was happening. They still have not received an answer on what was occurring.
We drove the road parallel to the plant to see how far we could travel and still detect odor. We detected odor from the plant approximately 4 miles away. We did pass hog farms and they do have an outrageous odor to them. But we could get beyond their plume and catch the ethanol plant odor once again.
9/13/05, Tuesday - Returning to Steamboat Rock Plant today to observe plant perimeter
Intermittent Plume:
Plume 30 seconds
2nd plume 6 seconds
One minute wait
30 second plume
0ne minute 30 second wait
One minute plume
Plume looks like it has a gray tone/color to it.
9/13/05, Tuesday (cont’d) -Kim asked when they were up to full operation. They said about 10 pm the night before. We were there at 8:30 pm the night before and had detected odor 4 miles away. Kim said they were at approximately 80% speed at 8:30 pm.
9/13/05 Still at Steamboat Rock – Temp 68 degrees, Time 7:30 AM, Wind Speed 5 mph- avg 3.4, Humidity 76, Barometric Pressure 967.8 barr.
We can see steam coming from distillation building. Dick noted that it doesn’t look the same as stuff coming out of the stack where thermal oxidizer is.
8 am One mile from plant on parallel road. Note: plant is surrounded by hog farms. Wind is practically still. Hog farms over-power all other smells.
At 2 miles away able to smell ethanol Plant. Wind very slight. South-South/West. Humidity 76.1, Temp 70 degrees, Wind 4.6 mph.
Tuesday 9/13/05 continued . 8:40 am left Steamboat Rock for Benson, Minn. It was going to take too long to get there so we went to Winnebago instead.
Winnebago –
Population 1,487. Corn Plus Ethanol. Wind = North/West, Max15.7 mph – avg 10 mph, Temp 66 degrees.
Odors:
1. Stale Beer
2. Grainy
3. Incineration Smell
4. Sickish
Other Info:
1. Comes in by rail
2. Acrid type exhaust
3. Continued Plume
4. Exhaust from Oxidizer is Brown
5. Per Dick Pope Odor is NOx Odor
6. Plant surrounded by farmland
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