In the United States (US), ICM, Inc., a global leading biofuels process technology provider, and The Andersons, Inc., a publicly-traded company with diverse agribusiness interests including ethanol production have announced plans to implement value-added technologies in multiple ethanol plants operated by The Andersons. The Andersons will license Fiber Separation Technology Next Gen (FST Next Gen), Selective Milling Technology V2 (SMT V2), and Thin Stillage Solids Separation System (TS4).
According to a statement, ICM will engineer, design, manufacture and install FST Next Gen, SMT V2, and TS4 process technologies in selected plants operated by The Andersons beginning in 2019.
We have experienced operational benefits of the TS4 process at our Greenville, Ohio plant. We are looking forward to expanding our use of ICM’s technologies and implementing ICM’s TS4, FST Next Gen and SMT V2 systems into additional facilities, said Mike Irmen, President, The Andersons Ethanol Group.
SMT V2 is ICM’s patented technology platform that is designed to maximize ethanol and distillers oil production while minimizing operational expenses. SMT V2 maximizes the amount of starch exposed for conversion to ethanol and oil available for recovery while preserving fiber for higher value platform applications.
FST Next Gen is ICM’s value-added, patented technology platform designed to maximize throughput in ethanol manufacturing facilities while minimizing energy consumption. This progressive pre-fermentation system removes fiber prior to fermentation, allowing more fermentable carbohydrates to be loaded into each batch for fermentation.
TS4 is ICM’s patent-pending technology platform that provides opportunities for separating the stillage process stream into its most valuable components: protein, clarified solubles and oil. The TS4 process improves dryer and evaporator efficiencies by reducing solids in stillage.
The Andersons is always looking for innovative, cost-effective ways to improve their operations. We’re very excited that, once again, they have trusted ICM as their partner of choice and selected our technologies as best solutions to bring more value to their plants, said Tom Ranallo, ICM VP of Operations.
The Andersons Ethanol Group operates ethanol plants in Albion, Michigan; Clymers, Indiana; Greenville, Ohio; and Denison, Iowa. The four plants combined are capable of producing over 475 million (US) gallons (≈ 1.8 billion litres) of ethanol annually.
In March this year, the two companies announced a partnership to own and construct ELEMENT, LLC, a 70 million US gallon (≈ 265 million litre) biorefinery located in Colwich, Kansas.
