Cooling

An ethanol plant uses several gallons of water for each gallon of ethanol it produces. Most of the water is used for cooling, part goes out the door as moisture in the distiller's grains, and the rest enters the waste (and storm water) treatment facility. Water cools most by evaporation, so the water is lost to the air. Depending on the humidity and temperature, you might be able to see the cooling water usage of a plant by the steam clouds.

We have industrial water rights for 800 acre-feet per year. This is far more than we need for producing 36 million gallons of ethanol per year. The water rights were used at a plant that made potato flakes that is adjacent to the Moses Lake Biofuel Facility. This is the pump:

The above is a 175 HP pump connected to a 16 inch well with a capacity of 500 gallons per minute. It is 628 feet deep. You can read the well log at the department of ecology, Washington State, or find it by searching for a "well Log ID number of 293531.

Before these cooling towers were moved to Moses Lake, here is what they looked like at the distillation plant in New Hampshire:

Here are some cooling towers purchased in California (we have 3 of these, 2 are shown here):

The above coolers are now at the site in Moses Lake:

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