Making Mash

To turn corn into ethanol, the first step is to make a "mash", a "corn sugar" soup. This is done by grinding the corn into small pieces, boiling it with water, and adding chemicals that convert starches into sugars.

In addition to corn, the ethanol plant is also permitted to use barley. This is to help guard the plant financially against high corn prices. Barley is a low water grain crop that can be grown over about half the area of Washington State. For years, barley production has been small in the state, but with a plant that can consume barley for fuel, a great deal of dry cropland left fallow now could be productive in the future.

This hammer mill came with the plant originally and has enough capacity for 12 million gallons per year production.  Hammer mills create dust and noise. Our air permit states that we are to build an enclosure for the hammer mill to prevent corn / barley dust from polluting the air. This will make for a more comfortable and healthy working environment.

Here is another picture of the hammermill along with the existing weigh system.

After grinding, the crushed corn is mixed with hot water in a jet cooker. The result is kept at high temperature in these jacketed, agitated cook tanks. They are already installed, but will need to be configured for the new process: