The approach to measuring economic benefit is described above (see 7.1 and 7.2); investment volume,necessary for measure implementation, is calculated based on the Contractor’s experience consideringthe current prices.

If raw material with high moisture content (up to 18%) enters the enterprise, it is directed to the rawmaterial drying unit equipped with a mining-type dryer. Drying unit is equipped with a gas burner.Approximate capacity of the drying unit is 3.0MW or 4 ton/h of evaporated moisture.

Aimed at decreasing of organic fuel consumption, re-equipping of drying unit is provided for operationfrom alternative heat source. Air, been initially warmed up in hot-air generator, is used as a dryingagent. Heat of cogeneration unit, of boiler exhaust gases (operating from wooden “chips”), and steamare all used for air heating. Heat of a new boiler condensing economizer is transferred to hot-airgenerator by means of intermediate heat transfer agent. The hot-air generator, warmed up by heat ofcogeneration unit (90 – 70 ОС) and the hot-air generator, heated by steam, are both additionallyinstalled. Gas burner compensates probable lack of heat. Thermal capacity of hot-air generators ofgrain dryer is shown in Table 7.3.2.

DDGS output requires installation of a drying unit, in which cake will be dried up to reaching moisturecontent of 10-12%. The drying process requires 3.0MW of heat. Hot air serves as a drying agent. Air isheated by hot-air generators. Installation of three hot-air generators is meant to be in the followingsequence:

• Lower-grade heat of CGU (54 - 47 ОС);
• Heat of distillery dregs centrate after decanter (70 - 50 ОС);
• CGU heat (90 - 70 ОС);

Saturated steam under pressure of 6bar is supplied to the inbuilt heat exchangers of the unit inorder to maintain high temperature in the housing of the drying unit. Steam under the same pressureis fed to the drying unit for steam smothering provision. Thermal capacity of hot-air generators arelisted in Table 7.3.1.

It is essential to adjust heat flows (increasing capacity and enlarging of the range of releasedproducts) under the 2nd group measure implementation. All heat energy excess is returned back totechnological process.

It is suggested to use distillery dregs obtained from the additional DRU for production of a range offeed products, and to use rectification waste which is lutter water as process water after beingtreated additionally.

All mentioned above allows:

• complete using of heat energy of process waste;
• reducing fresh tap water intake for process needs;
• eliminating continuous disposal of highly contaminated water into sewage facility;
• enlarging product range by means of readily available feed products

Balance scheme of implementation and economic indicators of the measure are both given in Appendices.Investment volume of measure implementation has been calculated based on theContractor’s experience considering analogous projects.

The whole equipment of the process cycle can be placed in the existing facilities of the Customer.

It is worth noticing that implementation of the mentioned measure requires developing, approving aswell as confirming design and estimate and project design documentation.

Experience in operation of similar technological cycles proves their high efficiency.

There are two reasons for offering reconstruction of dehydration cycle, they are as follows:

• lack of capacity of the existing dehydration unit for putting into operation theadditional DRU;
• application of old technological solutions in the existing dehydration cycle, namelydehydration by means of rectification by azeotropic mixture “water-ethanolcyclogexane”.

Cyclohexane used in dehydration cycle features high corrosiveness which will require, to theContractor’s point of view, to replace the equipment quite soon. Furthermore, based on many sources,cyclohexane is “a provoker” of oncological diseases.

The offered technology of dehydration by PERVAPORATION MEMBRANES completely excludescyclohexane using. Moreover, it consumes less technological heat, which allows making heat energyconsumption by technological cycles more efficient.

Based on data [8], application of evaporation allows reducing consumption of technological heat energyby 2 times. In other words, the whole dehydration cycle of capacity of 100,000l/day will consume thesame amount of heat energy in the form of steam as the existing dehydration cycle of capacity of50,000l/day.

Basic scheme of measure implementation and comparative characteristics of heat energy consumption bydifferent technological flow charts of dehydration based on the data [8] are shown in figure 7.2.2.The whole equipment for implementation of the measure offered can be installed in the existingproductions areas.

The additional distillation and rectification unit (hereafter referred to as DRU) is offered as thatoperated in parallel to the existing unit. Raw material will be produced by EXISTING cycles of rawmaterial treatment, fermentation No1 and No2. The end product of the unit is rectified alcohol of“INDUSTRIAL” or “FOOD” grades having proof of 96.3%abv. of absolute alcohol.

DRU waste, which is distillery dregs and lutter water, is used as raw material for feed production

The additional DRU can be located outdoor as equipment structure. The contractor has positiveexperience in operation of DRU located outdoor.

The 2nd group of measures is represented by the measures ensuring increase in efficiency ofenterprise operation by means of increasing capacity and enlarging product range.The measures of the 2nd group are as follows:

• Installation of an additional distillation and rectification unit having capacity of 50,000l (50m3)of rectified ethanol per day;
• Reconstruction of ethanol dehydration cycle with capacity increase by 50,000l (50m3) ofrectified ethanol per day;
• Installation of a technological cycle for production of new commercial products for feedapplication.

Engineering viability as well as the possibility to implement the measures of the 2nd group lays in thefact that the existing cycles and technological units, namely:

• Raw material receiving unit
• Raw material storage facility
• The cycle of raw material pretreatment
• The cycle of grinding and milling of raw material
• The cycle of hydro-heat-fermentation treatment of raw material (Fermentation No1)
• The cycle of alcohol fermentation of raw material (Fermentation No2)

can provide capacity 100,000l (100m3) of ethanol per day, while the other cycles, namely;

• Distillation and rectification
• Ethanol absolutization

can provide only 50,000l (50m3) of ethanol per day;

In other words, the cycles of distillation and rectification as well as the cycle of ethanolabsolutization are all as a BOTTLENECK in the technology.The increase in capacity of the cycles of distillation and rectification will provide the following:

• complete use of installed capacity of the cycles of raw material treatment, fermentation No1and fermentation No2;
• improving application of installed capacity of utility systems, mainly it refers to the boilerhouse;
• obtaining raw material for enlarging the range of released commercial products, which is toorganize feed production;

Cost-benefit analysis of the 2nd group of measures is made based on EBITDA; the base indicator istaken as parameter values for a plant featuring capacity of 50,000l of ethanol per day and workingwith process parameters of the plant UAB “KURANA”. Balance schemes for implementation of the 2ndgroup of measures and the “base” production are both given in the Appendices.

Calculation of investment volume required for implementation of the 2nd group of measures has beenmade based on analogous projects.

The economic benefit received from the measure application has been calculated as the differencebetween values of the “basic” EBITDA project variant and the design project variant. Based on this,the benefit equals to 3.385 million EUR per year.

Measure reconstruction of contact devices of distillation column is rather conditionally referred to the1st group. For cost-effectiveness analyses of the measure, the information of Contractor’s staff aboutthe necessity of column stop, in order to provide the cleaning of operated contact devices, is takeninto account. Frequency of such stop is accomplished once in 2… 3 weeks, with cycle time including:

• Duration of performing the column stop;
• Duration of contact devices cleaning;
• Duration of column restart

takes about one day. Consequently, even under the maximum lasting period of between cleaning ofcontact devices, the period of distillation column continuous run decreases from the estimated 330days per year up to 314 days, or by a factor of 5.1%.

Ethanol production decreases by to the same value, namely by 840.4 m3 of dehydrated ethanol; thecost of “unreleased” ethanol as a result of idle time due to contact devices cleaning is 420,180.00 EURper year.

EDV® valve-type trays, widely operated on ethanol plants of Ukraine and Lithuanian distillationcolumns, DO NOT REQUIRE such often stops for cleaning. Regulated operating time of the columnwithout stops makes up 1 YEAR. Consequently, the economic benefit of distillation columnreconstruction will reach not less than 420,180.00 EUR per year. The following features of the columnafter the reconstruction should refer to positive ones:

• High efficiency rate which enables to INCREASE the column capacity by 20 … 25%;
• Lower heat energy consumption for regulated technological process run;
• Lower labour costs for column operation due to excluding rather often cleaning of contactdevices.

Technical and commercial offer for the contact devices delivery in the perspective of distillation columnreconstruction dated from 2014-07-14 is shown in Appendices. All the characteristics of suggestedcontact devices are listed there, including their cost price and operation warranty of engineeringdesign documentation for column reconstruction.

Consequently, the volume of additional investment in reconstruction of distillation column has toinclude nothing but:

• Dismantling costs of existing contact devices;Installation costs of new contact devices;Installation and adjustment supervision costs of distillation column after reconstruction havingbeen done.