Ethanol: Peim-Mar Project Manager Provides Answers
(Continued from Page El)
Management Authority’s waste incinerator, adjacent
to the ethanol site, will provide a portion, of the
power to turn com into ethanol and co-products,
according to planners.
Scott Welsh, project manager, said Penn-Mar
Ethanol is in the process of applying for an air per
mit with the Pennsylvania Department of Environ
mental Protection, rezoning, and working on a land
development plan. He expects the approval process
to be completed by February or March of next year.
Early this month, Lancaster Farming (LF) con
ducted the following question-and-answer session
with Welsh:
LF; What benefits could local com growers see from
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this plant other than price?
Welsh: We’re expecting the facilities will be farmer
friendly, with fast unloading. That’s the main thing.
LF: What effect could the plant have on local com
prices?
Welsh:There are lots of effects it could have. Most of
the time, it won’t have a significant impact. The
most likely effect is that at harvest time, when basis
is low, the plant will help to keep the basis up a bit.
Because com is our major input cost, we don’t want
to intentionally drive the price of com up.
LF: What is the expected marketability of the co
products?
Welsh: We’re expecting to produce a high-quality,
golden dried distillers grain. We think it’s going to
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Lancaster Farming, Saturday, October t 8,2003, Com Taik-E3
have real good -marketability to dairy producers.
There’s more and more nutrition work out of the
Midwest that shows high-quality distillers grain has
good value for hogs and poultry as well.
We will potentially market wet distillers grain at
50-60 percent moisture. One advantage of that is we
won’t have the expense of drying. Some studies also
show that palatability and digestibility is higher. The
disadvantage is that wet distillers grain has a shorter
shelf life than the dried product.
We will be capturing carbon dioxide and probably
will have an “off-take” agreement with an industrial
gas company that will use it either as compressed
liquid carbon dioxide or dry ice.
LF: Will producing distillers grain from this im
ported com add to the nutrient management
problem in the region?
Welsh: I would say no, because we’re already
importing a percentage of the feed products
in the region. The distillers grain we produce
will largely replace other distillers grain and
dry grains being imported into the region.
LF: Is the ethanol market in the East purely
dependent on government regulations?
Welsh: No, it’s not. The banning of MTBE
and passing of a renewable fuel standard at
the federal level are part of the regulation as
pect. They certainly are factors that are
going to affect the ethanol market. But we
think that even without them, the economics
justify the use of ethanol.
LF: Is the ethanol market projected to grow
in the Northeast?
Welsh: Yes. Useage/projections are any
where between a half billion and one billion
gallons per year in the Northeast. Based on
that, the SO million gallons a year our plant
is expected to produce would supply between
5 foul tQ percent of the ethanol used in
Northeast.
afeaw*MP«°«%' |iKB giyA
valuable liquid energy sfHSgytopduced fraST
lower value energy sounmSßffll this be
in this facility? ... '*
[*W«lsh; In*- our case, r we’ll be getting two
thirds energy needs from steam from
the incinerator. Our electrical needs Will also
be met by that -
LF: Is demand for ethanol to
support several plants in the region?
Welsh: Yes, I think there is. I think thatgoes
back to the estimate that we’ll produce be
tween 5 and 10 percent of ethanol demand in
the Northeast.
LF: Why produce ethanol in a corn-deficit
area?
Welsh: Our feeling after doing the analysis is
that the economics are roughly equivalent to
what they would be in a corn, surplus area
because we are closer to markets.
higher freight costs for com, hut
freight costyfo) - the final products. It’s like a
feed or flout ffiill or other kinds of food pro
duction facilities that are doing processing at
the market find. We still think the majority
of ethanol Wifi be produced in the Midwest,
but we think'there is room for a percentage
of production-to come from the Northeast.
An essential part of it is good rail access.
LF: Is there a possibility of using different
inputs or producing different outputs in the
future with this kind of facility?
Welsh: I would say there is. To a limited ex
tent, we’ve looked at using hull-less barley.
It’s not really available yet, but it would
seem to make sense.
On the output side, we’ve also looked at
producing alcohol for industrial uses, such as
in the pharmaceutical industry.
LF: Will local producers be able to invest in
the plant in the future?
Welsh: It’s possible. We don’t have all the
details of how the finances will be out togeth
er yet. Investment opportunities are limited
by the laws and regulations governing
limited liability corporations (LLCs).
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