Esterification of feedstock with up to 20% FFA

Maximize profits by processing waste feedstocks – at a lower cost than alternative technologies

Like many biodiesel plant operators, you want to start processing waste feedstocks, such as used cooking oil and tallow, at the lowest possible cost. To accomplish this, many producers utilize acid esterification as a pretreatment to process feedstocks in their existing chemical transesterification plants.

 However, running acid esterification is no smooth operation, and the process has several drawbacks:

1.  It is a highly corrosive process, resulting in significant maintenance cost and downtime
2. High excess methanol drives substantial rectification costs and bottlenecks
3. Color formation requiring bleaching or distillation and other side reactions leading to ester yield loss
4. It requires significant capital expenditure. 

With enzymatic pretreatment, you can overcome these challenges and start processing feedstocks with up to 20% FFA prior to transesterification, at a low cost and with minimal CAPEX. In this process, the feedstocks are pretreated with Eversa® Advance, and then co-processed with chemical transesterification for on-spec biodiesel. Eversa® Advance is well-proven to convert feedstocks with up to 20% FFA to FAME. 

Feedstock-specific pretreatment is accomplished using bolt-on batch or continuous stirred-tank reactors (CSTR) for a 600 TPD plant at ambient pressure and temperature, and delivers a number
of benefits:

• Gain up to 45% in OPEX savings
• Drop-in solution to an existing acid esterification process or up to 73% CAPEX savings
• Smooth plant throughput with no unexpected maintenance and side reactions
• An optimized enzyme dosage of <1kg per ton of feedstock

With our FlexFit^® process, Novonesis engineers can help you identify the best ways for your plant to maximize profits and transition to feedstock flexibility with our Eversa® Advance biocatalyst.