Ethanol Industry Uses UAS for Variety of Applications

by Ann Bailey (Ethanol Producer Magazine) ... Unmanned aerial systems (UAS) use in the ethanol industry is taking off. From checking on corn fields, to inspecting ethanol plants, to looking over rail cars before shipment, farmers and ethanol producers increasingly are turning to UAS to improve the efficiencies of their operations.

The Federal Aviation Administration predicts that sales of UAS for commercial purposes will grow from 600,000 this year to 2.7 million by 2020.

One of the UAS services Olsson Associates offers its Midwest ethanol industry clients is performing aerial spectral work with visible spectrum and thermal infrared cameras mounted on Dragonfly UAS. The cameras provide images of structural problems on vertical structures such as ethanol plant stacks or on pipe racks and the tops of pipelines that are difficult to access with ladders. Using UAS for inspections instead of ladders or scaffolding is safer as well.

The images captured by a visible spectrum camera with zoom capabilities can be streamed to the tablets of as many as 10 ethanol employees on the ground, providing real-time views, Harris (Jonathan Harris, UAS program manager) says. And, because the plant operator and employees are familiar with the layout and structures at the plant, they can help guide the UAS operators by pinpointing areas to fly over.

Another UAS service Olsson Associates offers ethanol industry customers is providing them with volumetric calculations for aggregate piles such as gravel, distillers grains or open grain bins, Harris says.

Besides operating UAS to perform ethanol plant inspections for its clients, Olsson Associates also inspects manhole covers on loaded ethanol train cars. “We can actually fly down a row of train cars to ensure that each manhole cover is locked and tagged properly,” Harris says, noting that the alternative is for employees to climb up and down train car ladders to check the cars or driving the train through a structure that would have overhead cameras and take photos of the tops of the car.

Upstream in the ethanol industry supply chain, UAS increasingly are being operated by a variety of people involved in production agriculture, including agronomists, crop consultants and farmers, to check on corn crops during the growing season and to determine the optimal harvest time.

At the Olsson Associates engineering firm, Harris sees the day coming when ethanol companies will have their own UAS. “I think it’s a technology that currently kind of requires a specialist, but it’s going to transition to something where plants have UAS of their own on site,” he says.

“There are still going to be opportunities for more complex tasks like mapping for engineering firms such as Olsson Associates, but for basic inspections, it is going to translate into an in-house application,” Harris says. READ MORE