FQTalks

What information do you need to make “Good Decisions”, each operational day, let alone during a crisis?  How can I navigate the pitfalls and mistakes that have taken other facilities down? Who has the answers I need today, this hour, this minute? Plant to plant, engineers solving problems in a conversational setting.  Great conversations, some humor, and all the information you need to run adapt, lead your teams, and plant more efficiently for better tomorrows.
 
Sometimes just hearing what another plant is facing and how they are approaching it can create a spark of ingenuity to help you solve your problem. Other times, we may be the spark for someone else. Either way, the Leaders at Fluid Quip Technologies have experienced a lot and have helped many plants overcome challenges.  Now we are sharing our knowledge in a way that the biofuels industry can utilize for free. anytime. FQTalks are 60-minute informational webinars that can be viewed, on-demand.
 
We are creating a space for all to share and all to learn, including 1000’s of tips and techniques that we have developed over the years to improve biofuels facilities.

FQTalks #1 10+ Ways to cut OPEX

The show that began it all. Looking to cut direct cost in your biofuels facility begins with input cost controls. The FQT team walk you though the areas and techniques you can implement to gain more control over these OPEX costs.

FQTalks #2 Distillation and Dehydration

The complete distillation system is covered in this in depth walk through on how distillation works, and areas for improvements. A great overall lesson on the functional properties of alcohol production as well as analytics.

FQTalks #3 Evaporation – Part 1

The good, the bad, and the ugly. This first lesson walks through the operating principles of evaporation in a biofuel plant, including how other plant areas can impact the evaporator function.

FQTalks #4 Evaporation – Part 2

We continue on from part 1 of evaporators, expanding on operations around the evaps. How the different evaporator designs function in the respective plants.

FQTalks #5 Oil Recovery

Corn, oil, what it is , where is found, and how can we ensure we get all of it recovered in the biofuels plant. From grind to heat and hold, we cover the basics of oil recovery.

FQTalks #6 Industrial Alcohol

Bridging the gap; from fuel grade to industrial grade alcohol. The First Lady of Ethanol, Kristi Moore, (Kmoore Consulting) joins the team to walk you through the pitfalls, regulations, and various aspects of producing higher grades of alcohols. We also look at the plant operations and what changes need to occur for a facility to move to these different grades of alcohol production.

FQTalks #7 Fermentation – Part 1

Optimizing your fermentation strategy begins with a in depth study of the rules and interactions of the components in the fermentation process.

FQTalks #8 Fermentation – Part 2

Many efficiencies can be realized through effective and thoughtful fermentation design. This show covers the best practices and how to adapt existing plants to achieve better fermentation strategies through better design.

FQTalks #9 Cooling Tower

Cooling towers 101, a primer on cooling water in your plant. Design basics, Trouble shooting, and the operation of are covered, including a neat little engineering trick to help summer time cooling blues.

FQTalks #11 Grind Optimization

There is more to grinding corn at an biofuels facility than hammermills. We cover all the aspects of grind through liquefaction.

FQTalks #12 Electrical

Lowing electrical usage and a good basic understanding of the electrical needs in a plant.

FQTalks #14 Tough Questions

Ever wondered why… We do to, that is why we put together the A Team of talent and gave them lots of questions to answer about ethanol production.

FQTalks #15 Higher Grade Alcohol Operations

The second installment in understanding higher grade alcohol production. We dig deep into the production of commercial, USP, VHQ, and other industrial alcohols from the fuel grade plant.

FQTalks #17 Energy Saving Projects – Part 1

We get down and dirty in Pinch Analysis understanding, including how to conduct one in your plant and what should be included. We also look at finding energy saving across the plant, in cook, dehydration, evaporation, Drying, Steam generation.

FQTalks #20 Distillation

Over view of the distillation process, including vacuum, pressure and hybrid systems We take an in depth look at energy usage factors, and energy savings in distillation.

FQTalks #21 CIP – Part 1

Special guest Phibro joins the FQTalks team to get clean; equipment that is. We cover CIP of the front end of plant operations; Cook, Liquefaction, Heat Exchangers, Propagation and Fermentation.

FQTalks #22 CIP Part – 2

Take 2 for the Phibro team, when we talk back end plant operations cleaning. Detial explanation on the KIPs of CIP on the evaps.

FQTalks #23 Pumps: Design

Hans and Frans pump it up on this show…Everyone has them, and yet they seem to be one of the most mis understood elements of plant operations. We dig deep into design and application issues.

FQTalks #25 Dryer Optimizations

Basis is not so basic when we cover dryer theory. From DDGS to wet bulb, combustion, rotary driers, ring dryers, and spray dryers.

FQTalks #26 Net Corn Cost

The wet mills know their Net Corn cost every day. Net Corn is how much the feedstock, ie. the most expensive cost in a corn mill, wet or dry is costing you each day. We show you how to use this metric to determine the profitability of your plant each day.

FQTalks #27 CST

Clean Sugar Technology, what is it and what is the value of a sugar product from the dry mill. The FQT technology is broken down to show how it works, and where is the value of these products that are being produced today from these sugars?

FQTalks #28 Protein Technologies – Part 1

So you wanna be a rock star…Why is the MSC protein separation technology designed the way it is. How should you look at this system and how to value a technology improvement to your plant. Pre vs post-fermentation fiber separation.

FQTalks #29 Protein Technologies – Part 2

The magic of protein separation and bonus Les Paul trivia. How we engineer and integrate to the base ethanol plant. Industry poll results on CAPEX project. How do your peers think about adding technology? What fears do plants have on technology? We answer these and discuss how to discern fact from fiction on technology claims around protein separation.

FQTalks #30 – Protein Markets

Why Soy Beans not be able to provide the world’s protein demand, and how corn protein, specifically Corn Fermented Protein from the dry mill will see long term growth. Great stats and a frank conversation about feeding the world from the dry mill.

FQTalks #32 – Fiber By-Pass

What does the Blues Brothers and Fiber by Pass have in common? Find out in this exhilarating show where we look closely at why or why not would a plant choose to use this technology.

FQTalks #33 – White Fox ICE

The White fox team give a great overview and answer lots of listener’s questions on how this technology can help mole sieve pinch, and energy reduction in dehydration.

FQTalks #34 – Plant Maintenance

The master of plant uptime makes his appearance on the show. Our very own mechanical guru of FQ Mechanical get son his soap box to help out maintenance managers everywhere.

FQTalks #35 – Automation

What started as the holiday show turned into a knowledge download on automation. How to think about it; the dos and don’t’s of process aides, repeatability. Identification of the best processes to automate first.

FQTalks #44 – Water Balance 101

The ins and outs of water flow through your plant. How to tell when you are out of balance and how to fix it. Special focus on the ways water enters the plant that you are not aware of.

FQTalks #45 – Creating a 5 to 10 Year Plant Capital Improvement Strategy

Not sure how to plan for a future state of the plant? What should I consider in projects, how do I anticipate technology changes and additions, or even the development of new technology. How can I be ready to take advantage of revenue gains as they come up? We walk you through a step by step process to create a plan and get organized for the future of your plant.

FQTalks #54 – PHA – Process Hazard Analysis

Learn the steps to planning and running a PHA for the various areas under your control. From making a process inherently safer to full project/plant operational analysis; learn the steps and tools to use to lead this very important safety factor.

FQTalks #55 – Sizing Pressure Relief Valves

One of the first lines of defense in safety in and around a plant; properly sizing PRV’s ensure the prevention of over pressuring a vessel. Understand the need for, design of, and application of these devices. We walk through all 17 sizing/failure scenarios.

FQTalks #56 Project Costs and Project Costs Buildup

A primer on how to build up a realistic project cost for your projects. We use several different ways you can assess the real cost of a project. These steps will help you to determine the working cost of large projects, for budgeting, and for small projects.

FQTalks #57 – Intellectual Property, A Primer on IP

Patent vs trade secret, how to tell if what you have is patentable, how to protect your IP, and who is responsible for defending a patent. We give a really good understanding of IP and how to search for and read patent filings.

FQTalks #58 – The Finale

As we close out our weekly talk show series, we look back and forward, with an industry outlook on the future of biofuels, the biocampus, and the bright future we see for the ethanol facility.