High Vacuum Biodiesel Distillation Unit
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PROBLEM Current biodiesel technology can use only limited feedstocks; new plant-based feedstocks are needed to produce fuel on a larger scale.
PROJECT Big Island Biodiesel will build a High Vacuum Distillation (HVD) unit for a 5 million gallon per year facility that can process a wide range of agricultural feedstocks into high quality biodiesel.
AWARD $2,000,000 (HREDV 50%, private 50%)
LOCATION Kea’au, Hawaii Island
PARTNER Pacific Biodiesel Technologies, LLC
SUMMARY
Big Island Biodiesel LLC (BIB) is part of the Pacific Biodiesel group of companies led by Maui-based Pacific Biodiesel Inc. Pacific Biodiesel, Inc. has 16 years of experience designing and building 12 community-based production facilities and operating 4 facilities. The Big Island Biodiesel plant on Hawaii Island, near Hilo, will be the thirteenth facility constructed by this family of companies.
This biodiesel technology project will demonstrate an engineering-scale HVD system sized for integration within an actual biodiesel production environment. Demonstrating this new technology will allow production of biodiesel that continues to meet the increasingly stringent fuel standards of the U.S., EU, and Asia. Expanding production of high quality biofuels from locally generated feedstock is strategically important to achieving the goals of the Hawaii Clean Energy Initiative, an effort to get 70% of Hawaii’s energy needs from clean energy sources by 2030. The project also advances Department of Energy priorities by increasing high quality renewable fuel production and use. The biodiesel product from this plant will meet or exceed EN 14214 and ASTM D6751 quality standards. The high quality fuel will address increasing local market demand from farmers, fuel distributors, large fleet customers, and utilities.
In addition to enhancing fuel quality, this new technology will enable the biodiesel plant to accept a much wider variety of feedstocks, such as oils with sulfur containing compounds, polymerized fatty acid esters, brown grease recovered from grease trap waste, and virgin crop oils from new biocrops with undesirable constituents such as high sulfur content or high levels of free fatty acids. The technology facilitates use of locally grown virgin oil feedstock and promotes environmentally safe management of waste oils and trap grease generated by civilian and military populations in Hawaii.
The demonstration project moves this new technology to Technical Readiness Level 6 by utilizing previous testing results from a laboratory-scale HVD piloted at a commercial biodiesel refining facility. The engineering-scale HVD will be designed, fabricated, and installed by the Pacific Biodiesel group of companies at a newly constructed biodiesel facility, Big Island Biodiesel. JV Northwest, a licensed welding and general contractor in Hawaii, will be the fabrication subcontractor and will assist in the installation. Once installed, HVD parameters will be optimized for integration with the biodiesel refining process utilizing currently unacceptable feedstock.
The project will result in a replicable HVD unit that advances the biodiesel industry by allowing:
- Purification of esters made from feedstock with high contamination levels;
- Easy deployment through design of a skid mount unit that can be added on to new and existing production facilities to allow utilization of new and available feedstocks; and
- Economical conversion of trap grease into high grade biodiesel meeting all standards.
This HREDV-supported project will provide the biodiesel industry with new technology to integrate into existing community scale refining facilities and to incorporate into new facilities to expand the types and quality of feedstock for biodiesel production that meets stringent quality specifications.