Ethanol Plant Upgrades
Commercial Alcohols Inc.

Fermentation upgrade - the foremost step in expanding

From a standing start only ten years ago, Commercial Alcohols Inc. (CAI) has grown to be the largest manufacturer of fuel ethanol in Canada. CAI’s ethanol plants in Chatham and Tiverton, ON use corn dry milling and both batch and continuous fermentation.

Committed to continuously improving the quality and capacity, CAI engaged Dick Engineering Inc. to provide engineering services for several process upgrades at the Chatham plant. These upgrades are part of an initial phase of a program to double the plant capacity.

Dick Engineering was selected based on a long history of involvement in beverage fermentation and distillation, and other specialty chemicals.

The upgrades included:

• nitrogen blanketing of various tanks
• CIP system for fermentation tanks
• filtration of air supply to fermenters
• improved mixing in the startup tank
• increased evaporation capacity
• supply of chemicals to fermenters
• process water supply modifications
• enzyme injection control
• fermentation stabilization
• fuel ethanol metering

For each of these upgrades, Dick Engineering provided preliminary and detailed engineering, followed by construction review.

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