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STATEMENT OF WORK

Project Title:

Utilizing the National Corn-to-Ethanol Pilot Plant to Develop a Predictive Model for Distillers Dried Grain for the Fuel Ethanol and Animal Feed Industries

Contractor:

Southern Illinois University Edwardsville: National Corn-to-Ethanol Research Center
400 University Park Drive
Edwardsville, IL 62025
(618) 659-6737

Program Area:

Sensors and Control Sciences

Partners:

Washington University, St. Louis, Missouri; Department of Chemical Engineering
Emerson Process Management
Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity

Project Description:

The objectives of Southern Illinois University-Edwardsville's project is to develop and validate a neural network predictive plant model for the composition of Distillers Dried Grain with Solubles (DDGS), a coproduct resulting from the dry grind fuel ethanol process.

Management Plan

The unique nature of STAC requires that projects be supported by multiple State entities, and to the extent necessary any other entity. As indicated in the STAC Agreement, it is the Contractor’s responsibility to coordinate the execution of work under the Contract, incorporated by reference hereto. Contractor, in conjunction with the other State entities, and to the extent necessary any other entity, shall conduct the project in accordance with the Management Plan –  described below.

Administration

Dr. Martha Schlicher, Director of the NCERC, has overall responsibility for the delivery of the project plan and the project technical results.  Specific project deliverables have been identified and assigned to Robert Heider, Washington University, Dr. Dough Haefele, Pioneer Hybrid International, Inc., Karen Balentine, Emerson Process Management, Dr. Yanhong Zhang, Laboratory Manager 0 NCERC, Steven Ward, Research Engineer - NCERC, Terry Lash, Research Engineer - NCERC, Dr. Rodney Bothast, NCERC, and Dr. Martha Schlicher, NCERC.  Dr. Schlicher will have overall responsibility for managing the project budget, costs, project reporting and project deliverables.  Dr. Schlicher and Ms. Jo Barnes, SIUE Grants Administration, have developed tracking and monitoring procedures effective in such grant management as a part of the NCERC $21M construction funding and current NCERC grant funding of $1M.

Dr. Schlicher at the NCERC will be responsible for the overall management of the project.  All of the individuals at the NCERC report to Dr. Schlicher.  Dr. Bothast will be responsible fro the overall technical oversight of the project.  Dr. Martha Schlicher at the NCERC and the NCERC staff will contribute personnel and equipment to develop in line monitoring and sampling equipment, conduct pilot plant testing and to oversee the overall project plan.  Robert Heider will lead the overall model development and will have the full time assistance of a graduate student in Chemical Engineering.  Currently that student is Michael May.  Upon Michael's graduation a second student will be selected to continue the work.  Robert Heider also has the technical counsel of Greg McMillan, Chuck Carpenter, Dr. Al-Dahhan, and Dr. Mike Dudekovic.  Dr. Douglas Haefele has responsibility for the experimental corn production and donation from Pioneer.  Karen Balentine has responsibility for ensuring the hardware and software support from Emerson as well as for the coordination of the consultation from the paper and pulp industry.

Quarterly reviews of the research program will be led by Dr. Rodney Bothast.  Dr. Bothast has extensive experience in overseeing the successful completion of collaborative research projects from his leadership role at the USDA ARS in Peoria, IL.  Additionally, Dr. Bothast has a DDGS Technical Working Group that is comprised of industry and academic experts in DDGS.  This group will participate in the quarterly reviews and be used as a sounding board and resource for technical issues or needs that arise during the course of the study.  This Working Group of animal nutritionists, ethanol plant management, ethanol plant equipment manufacturers, and seed corn producers was established to develop the initial measurement criteria and will be involved throughout the process reviewing and assisting in refining the model as knowledge is developed.  Quarterly updates on this project will be provided by Dr. Martha Schlicher to the NCERC Advisory Board which is comprised of industry leaders in all of the relevant fields.  These forums will ensure that the project remains on track, on focus and that the project creates implementable and measurable results.  As previously discussed, the final project results will be shared at technical conferences, industry conferences, and a summary report prepared and shared with the industry.

Task 1: Background Preparations

A collaboration between the NCERC pilot plant and Washington University, utilizing Washington University's commercial modeling expertise and the NCERC's physical plant and industry relationships, was formed for the development of a predictive model.  To take advantage of the period while the plant is undergoing commissioning, Emerson Process Management, Washington University,  SIUE, and DCEO have demonstrated their commitment to the project by providing the start up funding to establish the means by which data currently generated at the plant can be stored for later model development.  This seed funding also allows for the development of a static model of the pilot plant dry grind process.  This preparatory model work is being conducted by a graduate student, Michael May, at Washington University under the direction of Robert Heider and Greg McMillan, faculty members in Chemical Engineering.  Robert Heider and Greg McMillan have extensive commercial experience in the development of neural networks.  With STAC funding, sensors and controls can be added and development of a predictive model via repeated pilot plant runs under variable experimental conditions can be conducted.

As additional background preparation for the development of a predictive model, Robert Heider is leading data gathering to determine the likely important corn and pilot plant process parameters to measure and control the important compositional elements of DDGS.  The Technical Advisory Working Group described above is assisting in this task.

Task 2: Predictive Model Development

If STAC funding is received, the collaboration will be able to move forward in developing and adding the sensors and controls identified as needed and in the development, testing and validation of a predictive model.  Model development will first occur using data generated during plant baseline development.  This will allow for training and testing a neural network model.  In parallel, the development and installation of the additional plant sensors and controls identified as critical in predicting the quality and composition of DDGS will be conducted.  Finally model completion and model optimization will occur via repeated pilot plants runs under variable feedstock and process experimental conditions accompanied by analysis of the compositional elements of DDGS deemed important.  The greater the number of runs and variability in input and process parameters, the better the quality of the predictive model.  Funding has been requested for 52 dedicated plant operating days to test parameters specifically identified as relevant to DDGS in addition to utilizing the data gathered from ongoing plant baseline runs.  Once data has been compiled over several operating parameters the neural network will be tested in its ability to predict DDGS compositional outcomes.  Refinements will be made to the model and the model continually retested until commercially acceptable predictability is obtained.

As a part of this proposal, Washington University has agreed to provide the continued leadership for development of this predictive model.  This work will be conducted under the faculty oversight of Robert Heider of a graduate student in chemical engineering with additional Washington University faculty support, consultation and use of the Washington University computer simulation laboratory.

The impact of the corn hybrid and the conditions under which the corn hybrid is grown was not originally identified and not described in this projects pre-proposal as a variable critical to the composition of DDGS.  Research by Pioneer Hybrid See, however, suggests that these variables are as important as the other process variables that have been identified.  The project scope has been broadened to reflect this additional element and Pioneer Hybrid Seed has agreed to donate field corn grown under experimental protocol such that all elements of production of this field corn will be known.  Once the model has been developed with "commodity corn", this Pioneer donation will allow for a distinction between hybrid and agronomic condition variability in addition to process variability in the development model.

Novus International, a leading DDGS animal feed supplier and Romer Mills, an industry provider of DDGS analysis, have agreed to provide their methodology and expertise for DDGS analysis to the NCERC laboratory manager, Dr. Yanhong Zhang.  The NCERC laboratories are equipped with all of the necessary analytical instrumentation for this analysis.  Animal nutritionists from the Advisory Group will be provided with fully characterized DDGS samples to allow them to develop separate animal nutrition studies to correlate the compositional data with feeding results.

Finally, while the NCERC has a drum dryer (the type of dryer utilized in most commercial fuel ethanol plants today) to model DDGS drying characteristics and impact, discussions are underway with two additional dryer manufacturers interested in contributing their dryer technology for evaluation as a part of this project.  While not critical to the outcome, alternative dryer technology evaluation would provide additional breadth in the understanding of the impact of the dryer on DDGS composition.

Today there are no tools in place to predict the quality or composition of DDGS.  Many beliefs exist as to what starting material or process parameters may influence this quality, but to-date, none of these assumptions have been formally validated.  Hybrid seed producers, hammermill manufacturers, DDGS dryer manufacturers, ethanol plant managers, and animal nutritionists have all indicated that being able to understand the factors that influence being able to predict DDGS composition is of significant value to the industry.  The final product of this research proposal will be a predictive model for DDGS composition at a commercial dry grind ethanol plant; validated on a pilot plant scale.

Task 3: Communications

The product model will be available to and valuable for dry grind plants to make plant modifications to improve the quality and composition of their DDGS for improved marketability and demand, and to understand the tradeoffs of their plants' physical parameters with DDGS quality.  Additionally the model will be available at the NCERC for ongoing research projects originating with the NCERC or the industry to determine the impact on DDGS of proposed process, reagent, or equipment modifications.  The progress and results of this study will be reviewed by the NCERC DDGS Technical Working Group under the leadership of Dr. Bothast quarterly.  The progress and results of this study will then be reported to the NCERC Advisory Board (comprised of leaders of the fuel ethanol industry and associated trade associations), at the appropriate technical and related trade association meetings, and to individual fuel ethanol plants in an NCERC plant update.  The results and the model will be openly shared with the industry.  As all commercial ethanol plants today have process control hardware and software, the methods and system will be directly transferable.

Project Tasks, Status, and Deliverables

Last Updated: 10/24/06