World Grain - September 2023 - 36

FEATURE: PANNONIA BIO ADDS BARLEY TO ITS PORTFOLIO
factured per year. About 7% of the EU ethanol market is
supplied by Pannonia Bio.
The company, which contributes more than €500 million
to Hungary's GDP and supports more than 6,000
jobs indirectly, mostly in rural areas, emphasizes that its
ethanol protects the environment by having greenhouse
gas emissions that are 30% of the petrol it displaces.
In recent years, it has evolved into a biorefinery that,
in addition to ethanol, also produces biogas, organic soil
fertilizer, dried distillers grains and solubles (DDGS),
corn oil, Pannonia Plus corn protein concentrate,
Pannonia Plus barley protein concentrate, corn wet fiber
and barley wet fiber.
In only 11 years, Pannonia Bio has expanded from a
standalone ethanol plant to a biorefinery complex that includes
multiple types of grain processing that produces
products that are used for a variety of industrial and animal
feed purposes.
Award shines light on
Pannonia Bio's commitment
to sustainability
From the start, Pannonia Bio has emphasized
sustainability and a positive
environmental impact both in the products
it produces and the processes used
in their production.
" Saving energy, providing feasible
steps toward climate protection with
results, and improving product quality
are three core goals of our research and
development team, " said Julian Parra,
energy and technology manager at Pannonia
Bio.
This commitment to environmental
consciousness and sustainability was
rewarded in 2021 when employees at
the company's Dunaföfoldvár plant won
a prestigious international honor - the
IChemE Energy Award - for reducing
energy use at the facility. The award
recognizes the best project, process
or product to demonstrate excellence
in efficient energy use or the development
of energy production methods
that reduce energy intensity. A team of
Pannonia Bio engineers - Julian Parra,
Andras Volford and Graeme Hansen -
were cited for their work on the project:
" Decarbonizing Biorefineries to Produce
Greener Ethanol. "
" We have achieved more efficienThe
finished
product from
the barley
plant is sold in
1-tonne bags.
The ethanol plant produces hundreds of thousands of
tonnes per year of protein-rich animal feed as DDGS,
branded Pannonia Gold. The oils in the corn also are
used to produce liquid animal feed, with the company
producing more than 10,000 tonnes of distillers corn oil
each year.
The refinery, which operates 24 hours a day, seven days
a week, processes more than 1.6 million tonnes of grain
annually.
The Turley family has never been timid about expand36
cy,
lower costs, and we have reduced
our consumption of natural gas by 33
megawatts, at a cost of 5.9 megawatts
of electricity, " Parra said.
In ethanol production, distillation
and dehydration are energy intensive
processes and account for a significant
part of the energy consumption of the
biorefinery. Smart heat integration and
boosting energy efficiency of these areas
were the team's key goals to minimize
production costs, minimize carbon
emissions and gain competitive advantage,
the company said.
The production process employs a
zero-effluent design and produces no
solid or liquid waste.
All process contact waters are fully recycled
and reused.
September 2023 / World Grain / World-Grain.com
http://www.World-Grain.com
World Grain - September 2023

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