8-1-06 Stephanie Briggs, Dickinson Press
RICHARDTON - With little over a year under its belt, construction for Red Trail Energy LLC’s ethanol plant here is still on schedule.
“I don’t feel we’ve had any major challenges,” plant general manager Mick Miller said. “The communication between Red Trail Energy and our major contractors has been good.”
The plant’s construction is to be completed by Nov. 15, which also marks the start of production.
“We’re not sure of a grand opening date, but will have one if start up is on target,” said Miller. “We are about 70 percent completed with construction. For the most part, all structures are in and layout work is done so what people see is how it’s going to be.”
Major piping and electrical work still needs to be done, he added.
Six major buildings on the site include the main office, a processing area, the energy center, boiler building, pump house and the dried distiller’s grain with solubles (DDGS) building.
“The coal island is changing onsite with coal silos and work on ash and coal handling areas being done,” Miller said. “We want to finish the coal island and the rail and grain receiving line next. The rail is mostly complete already and will be done when the grain receiving is finished.”
The project’s budget is $75.2 million and over half of construction is done by Fagen Engineering Incorporated.
Three concrete silos that are 145 feet tall and 75 feet in diameter are now up. The silos hold a combined 1.5 million bushels of corn for the production of ethanol.
There are five different floors between two of the silos which support the corn cleaner, surge bins and hammer mills. The process building houses heat exchangers, pumps and process equipment, with distillation columns on one side and four fermentation tanks on the other side.
The nearly completed railroad tracks transport ethanol and distillers grain to and from the plant. There also is a tank farm where the finished product will go. A coal island will house the coal combustor and heat recovery steam generator, also known as a boiler to supply steam.
“The plant will run 24 hours a day, seven days a week and 365 days a year,” Miller said. “We will rotate people to work in the plant.”
The plant will have 39 full-time workers when production begins, with an annual payroll of $1.5 million.
“The roles changing are mostly about finding highly qualified and skilled people to be here,” Miller said. “On the operation side, we need to find people who have an educational background with power process and experience in our industry, even though we know not all may come from within the ethanol industry.”
There is a huge variation with the 39 people hired regarding what qualifications are needed, he added.
“Operational, mechanical, instrumentation, electrical, management and engineering experience are the key qualifications (we are looking for),” said Miller.
Mandan native Edward Thomas was hired as the plant manager. Thomas comes from Benson, Minn., with an associate degree in applied science and process plant technology from Bismarck State College.
There are currently 280 people working on construction to ensure the plant is up and running by Nov. 15.
The only other change for the ethanol plant in Richardton is switching the plant to central time when it begins production.
For now, only the office has been working on Central Time while the construction company remained on Mountain Time.
“The plant will operate on Central Time just for the fact that the Red Trail Energy company design builders, plant engineers, financial and equipment lenders are on Central Time,” Miller said. “The office has been on Central Time since last fall, but we have adjusted hours accordingly for those who work for us and live on Mountain Time.”
For the normal day-to-day business operations at the plant, Miller said workers need to communicate to the east.
“The major challenge is coming at us, getting finished by Nov. 15, but we are on schedule,” he added.
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