New Technology Spotlight - Whitefox Technologies

Submitted By: Whitefox Technologies

Maximizing profitability and resilience in the current and post-45Z era

Regardless of when the 45Z credit period ends, ethanol producers face the same challenge: remaining competitive in a market where efficiency, operating costs, and carbon intensity matter more than ever.

The investments made today will determine which plants are best positioned to thrive as additional capacity comes online through 2030 and beyond. The most successful producers will be those that prioritize technologies delivering measurable economic benefits regardless of policy incentives.

At Whitefox, we see this firsthand. Earlier this year, Western Plains Energy reported a 35% plant-wide energy reduction following implementation of a Whitefox ICE® XL system. The project put them in another bracket for 45Z by reducing their CI score by around 6 points.

Extremely valuable today, but ultimately this upgrade was part of their long-term plan to be a Net Zero producer, one of the lowest energy cost operators and in prime position for supplying low carbon ethanol to customers, whether for road, maritime, or Sustainable Aviation Fuel.

“The 35% natural gas reduction delivered by the ICE XL helped us to probably have the lowest thermal energy usage of any ethanol plant in the world,” said Derek Peine, CEO of Western Plains Energy. “Just by doing one project, it's probably the biggest lever you can make outside of carbon sequestration to affect your carbon score.”

Figure 1 Whitefox ICE XL at Western Plains Energy; Oakley, KS

The Whitefox ICE XL transforms distillation, dehydration, and evaporation (DD&E) operations by leveraging the wide-operation range of membrane technology to transform distillation and dehydration into a continuous process with no pressure related cyclicality plus advanced heat integration.

The result? Industry-leading steam consumption as little as 6.5 pounds per gallon. Because DD&E is typically the most energy-intensive area of an ethanol plant, this reduction can move plants into new brackets within the 45Z tiered-credit system. An efficient plant like Western Plains could reduce 4-6 CI points, for others it could be a lot more.

"Once we complete our ICE XL project in 2027, we feel that we are going to be among or at world-class level in production from an efficiency standpoint,” said Wayne Garrett, General Manager of Chief Ethanol. “That's the exciting part because we are driving our energy inputs down significantly and operate at less than one third of our current energy consumption.”

The ability to deliver energy savings on this scale is ultimately a result of the efficient separation technology that is provided by Whitefox’s membrane technology.

• Unlike the batch processing nature of molecular sieve units (MSU), membranes dehydrate continuously with no regeneration required, unlocking 25% of the capacity within rectification. Continuous processing eliminates the dangerous pressure swings in MSUs that lead to cracked vessels.
• Membrane’s wide operating range allows for feeds with ethanol content as low as 50%, a startling difference when operating with MSUs that require a dryer feed of around 92% and more energy-intensive distillation.
• Like MSUs, membranes operate in the vapor phase; however, continuous separation in membranes allows for both the energy in the final product and water-rich stream to be recovered, providing opportunity for additional heat integration.

For producers seeking a faster, lower-capital pathway to debottleneck DD&E operations and want to keep their MSUs online, the Whitefox ICE® offers an alternative approach. By recovering and reprocessing recycle streams throughout DD&E, the system can unlock up to 25% additional production capacity while keeping existing equipment in service and delivering operational advantages.

Whitefox ICE at Golden Grain Energy; Mason City, IA

As E15 may soon become a year-round reality, this is a very efficient way to gain extra gallons where distillation and/or dehydration are a bottleneck, while also improving operations. Typical paybacks are less than 2 years, without 45Z.

Whitefox ICE Illustration

Depending on a plant’s capacity and energy savings goals, Whitefox solutions can deliver between a 5-50% capacity increase and 1000-7500 BTU/gallon savings in natural gas. This means real results that deliver paybacks for investments, regardless of low carbon credit availability, while helping to meet low-CI goals.

Whitefox Benefits by Solution

There are many ways to capitalize on the 45Z credit period. The producers that gain the greatest advantage, will be those investing beyond the credit period itself and implement technologies that lower operating costs, maximize efficiency, improve operations and safety, all the while bring gallons online that compete in a low-CI market.

Whitefox membrane-based solutions help achieve all four.