Second-generation Ethanol Plant in Brazil Automated with Yokogawa’s CENTUM VP

GranBio Investimentos SA is a Brazilian industrial biotech company that was born out of the vision of bringing about a green revolution through the construction of second-generation ethanol plants that will produce cheap, clean-burning biofuel from readily available biomass. Following its establishment in June 2011 by Gran Investimentos S.A., a holding company in which the Gradin family are the primary investors, the company built Bioflex 1, the first commercial second-generation ethanol plant in the Southern Hemisphere. Bioflex 1 started operation in early 2014 and is able to produce 82 million liters of biofuel per annum, making it one of the largest such facilities in the world.

As the main automation contractor (MAC) for the Bioflex 1 project, Yokogawa South America was involved from the front end engineering design (FEED) stage, performing the basic design for a control system and field instrumentation solution that will reduce costs and improve production efficiency throughout the lifecycle of the plant. Yokogawa installed the CENTUM VP integrated production control system; the csTUNER control loop tuning software; the CENTUM VP Batch package to control the plant’s pretreatment, enzymatic hydrolysis, fermentation, and distillation/separation units; field instruments including FOUNDATION™ fieldbus-enabled ADMAG AXF magnetic flowmeters, DPharp EJA series pressure/differential pressure transmitters, and control valves; and the Plant Resource Manager (PRM) asset management package. Yokogawa South America was responsible for product delivery, engineering, and operator training.

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