Biofuels International March/April 2016

March/April 2016 Issue 2 • Volume 10

international From sawdust to transport fuel

Finland will be home to the next cellulosic ethanol plant this summer

Implementing the unimplementable

Is the EU’s ILUC Directive fit for purpose?

Biofuels storage supplement inside

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Volume 10

March/April 2016 Woodcote Media Limited Marshall House 124 Middleton Road, Morden, Surrey SM4 6RW, UK www.biofuels-news.com MANAGING DIRECTOR Peter Patterson Tel: +44 (0)208 648 7082 peter@woodcotemedia.com EDITOR Liz Gyekye Tel: +44 (0)208 687 4183 liz@woodcotemedia.com DEPUTY EDITOR Ilari Kauppila Tel: +44 (0)208 687 4126 ilari@woodcotemedia.com INTERNATIONAL SALES MANAGER Matthew Clifton +44 (0)203 551 5751 matthew@biofuels-news.com US SALES MANAGER Matt Weidner +1 610 486 6525 mtw@weidcom.com PRODUCTION Alison Balmer Tel: +44 (0)1673 876143 alisonbalmer@btconnect.com SUBSCRIPTION RATES A one-year, 6-issue subscription costs £150/€210/$275 Contact: Lisa Lee Tel: +44 (0)208 687 4160 Fax: +44 (0)208 687 4130 marketing@woodcotemedia.com

c ntents 2 Comment 4 News 14 Technology news 16 People on the move 17 Current price index 18 Big Interview

Biofuels International catches up with Clariant 20 Technology special 22 Market analysis

The US market is off to a sputtering start for 2016

24 A road fuel odyssey

The looming end of sugar production quotas in Europe can open new horizons for the continent’s ethanol industry 26 Regional Focus: Europe

ILUC Directive divides opinions across the continent 32 Strength in sustainability 34 From sawdust to transport fuel

Finland is aiming to launch a cellulosic ethanol plant later this year 37 Attack of the clones

New feedstock for biofuel production 38 Giving credit where it is due

Analysis of US biodiesel tax credit scheme 41 No dumping on China 42 Microalgae in industry 45 Green page 46 Biodiesel from waste

A Portuguese waste-to-oil producer has developed a method for diverting waste oils from landfills 48 The path to commercialisation 50 Nutrients for fermentation and antibiotics

No part of this publication may be reproduced or stored in any form by any mechanical, electronic, photocopying, recording or other means without the prior written consent of the publisher. Whilst the information and articles in Biofuels International are published in good faith and every effort is made to check accuracy, readers should verify facts and statements direct with official sources before acting on them as the publisher can accept no responsibility in this respect. Any opinions expressed in this magazine should not be construed as those of the publisher.

54 Out with the old

Retrofitting new equipment 57 Incident report 58 Bio-based building blocks

Analysis of recent developments in technology for bio-based chemicals

international From sawdust to transport fuel

Finland will be home to the next cellulosic ethanol plant this summer

Implementing the unimplementable

62 Making sense of it all

The complex world of third generation biofuels production requires some heavy-duty software tools

Is the EU’s ILUC Directive fit for purpose?

63 Hydrothermal liquefaction of biomass: a pilot plant 66 Events

ISSN 1754-2170

Biofuels storage supplement inside

BIOFUELS STORAGE SUPPLEMENT INSIDE AFTER PAGE 62

biofuels international

March/April 2016 Issue 2 • Volume 10

Front cover courtesy of UPM Biofuels FC _Biofuels_march-april_15.indd 1

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Don’t be a stranger

Liz Gyekye Editor

F

irst off, an introduction is in order. I have recently taken up the post as editor of Biofuels International and I very much look forward to meeting many of you and working with you, to make the magazine as informative, relevant and valuable as it can be.

A bit about me… Having worked as a journalist for some nine years across a variety of titles I have built up strong experience, particularly in environmental publications.

I have worked on a variety of trade magazines within the environmental sector, so the challenges experienced by the green industry are by no means alien to me!

Nonetheless, over the coming weeks I’ll be refreshing my knowledge and getting to grips with the key issues facing the biofuels community, so I hope to talk to as many of you as possible, in person at conferences, via social media (tweet me at @biofuelsmag), and through phone interviews and emails. Please feel free

to contact me at any time at liz@woodcotemedia.com if there’s a particular topic you’d like to see covered in Biofuels International, or just to say hi — I’ll be happy to hear from you.

In the meantime, we have a selection of articles to keep you up-to-date on the industry’s latest technical advancements, in addition to a special biofuels storage supplement to coincide with StocExpo in Antwerp on 15-17 March (see page 63). There is no doubt that the oil price crash and its effects will be a hot topic during this three-day conference. Prices have fallen by more than two thirds since summer 2014 as demand has slowed with the global economy and US production has boosted supply. In this issue, Biofuels International asks industry experts, in a new ‘Big Question’ section, what impact they think this is having on the renewables sector. Is it having a negative one? (see page 4).

Biotech specialist Novozymes, for example,

has cut its long-term growth expectations as the prolonged oil price slump is delaying the development of the advanced biofuel industry and hurting sales to other sectors, the firm said.

Spanish renewable firm Abengoa is also facing difficulties of the financial kind. The company is planning to restructure, shrink itself by about a third to avoid bankruptcy and potentially sell off its bioenergy arm.

According to news agency Bloomberg, Abengoa will be open to selling Abengoa Bioenergia because “making biofuels is not part of the company’s core business”.

Despite this, as long as legislators continue to produce legislation that drives the biofuels industry the sector will still thrive (see page 26).

We hope you enjoy reading this bumper issue of Biofuels International.

Best wishes, Liz

Follow us on Twitter: @BiofuelsMag

2 march/april 2016 biofuels international

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bioethanol news China’s Kaidi plans €1bn biofuel plant in Finland Sunshine Kaidi New Energy Group, a Chinese renewable energy giant, is planning to invest €1 billion in a new woodbased biodiesel plant in Finland, as the country looks to replace fossil fuels with biofuels.

Kaidi said the plant would use wood-based biomass as its main raw material and it is scheduled to start operations in the northern

city of Kemi by the end of 2019.

The plant is due to employ around 4,000 people during its construction.

This will offer a boost for an economy that has lost thousands of jobs in the past decade due to paper mills closing down as a result in the increase of digital devices.

Kaidi said it was attracted by Finland’s vast forests and government subsidies.

“We find Finland the most interesting country to invest in for biofuels production in the Northern hemisphere.

Finland has vast biomass resources,

plenty of potential partner companies and an extremely progressive biofuels policy,” said Kaidi’s CEO and chairman, Chen Yilong.

Kaidi operates about 30 biomass plants in China and Vietnam, and the Kemi plant would be its first in Europe.

“Promoting bioeconomy and versatile use of wood are key projects for the Finnish Government. In addition, ensuring foreign investments that drive export and create new jobs are also one of our key goals,” Jari Gustafsson, Finland’s Employment Minister said. l

The Big Question Is the low oil price the biggest challenge the biofuels industry faces at the moment?

Low oil prices may be good news for the world’s oil consumers but is it bad news for the world’s biofuel producers?

Kathryn Sheridan, CEO, Sustainability Consult MAYBE. The low oil price is making it harder to attract and sustain investment in biomaterials and biofuels.

That’s obviously a concern but I’m much more worried about fossil fuel subsidies which completely distort the market.

Commercial renewable solutions are available today.

Even a hint of a level playing field would be helpful.

Sandra Oliveira, business development director, ENC Energy YES. Nevertheless, although oil price fluctuations are one of the factors that deeply affect the industry presently, other factors will represent a major challenge in the long term.

At the moment, the low oil prices push the biofuels industry to maximise efficiency by incorporating new feedstocks that decrease production costs. Fossilbased fuels are naturally going towards a decline phase, after which a biofuels market will probably emerge and new solutions will be needed to insure a greater environmental performance.

Michael Chaparian, CEO, Phenometrics YES. It is currently a very big issue, especially since the industry is still in the technology development stage which is both cost and risk intensive. Venture and other investors are certainly sensitive to the currently unfavorable market. This puts additional pressure on technology developers (both public and private sector).

However, we all know it’s also very difficult to predict the future… sometimes staying power is greatly rewarded.

Patrick Pitkänen, head of business development and sales, St1 NO. However, there are some countries and cases where we are facing direct competition with fossil fuels and those cases do not move now. Where the mandates are in place and obligated companies have to use biocomponents, the competition is between different bios not between fossil vs bio.

4 march/april 2016 biofuels international

bioethanol news ePure calls on Brussels to speed up reforms to aid renewable fuels in transport The European renewable ethanol association (ePure) has urged the European Commission to introduce a binding framework promoting the use of renewable fuels in transport.

In a submission to the public consultation for the new Renewable Energy Directive (REDII), which is being drafted this year and will cover the period 2020-2030, ePure sets out the case for a binding framework which maximizes the contribution of renewable fuels in decarbonising transport.

Robert Wright, SecretaryGeneral of ePure, said: “Transport is the only sector whose emissions have gone up not down compared to 1990 levels, seriously undermining the EU objective of reducing total emissions by 40% by 2030.

“Transport won’t decarbonise on its own. If Europe’s future renewables policy is to play any meaningful role in halting damaging global temperature increases, it must include a binding framework promoting the use of low carbon, renewable fuels in transport – in particular, ethanol.

“European renewable ethanol has certified 60% less GHG emissions than petrol and is ready to use today without replacing existing vehicles and infrastructure.

“E10 (petrol blended with up to 10% ethanol) is already being used widely in France, Finland and Germany, and along with higher ethanol blends like E20 (up to 20% ethanol) is the most efficient and cost-effective solution to decarbonise transport, available both now and up to 2030, when the vast majority

biofuels international

ePure is calling on the EC to decarbonise the transport sector

of vehicles will still run on internal combustion engines.

“With the new RED being drafted this year, the EU has a second chance to shape the future of Europe’s transport sector and create the policy conditions needed to deliver on the ambitious COP21 agreement.” ePure’s position is aligned with that of the European Parliament which has repeatedly called for a framework to decarbonise transport post-2020. ePure’s submission to the REDII

public consultation, which closed yesterday, calls for a binding framework which it recommends could include: • Targets: these are needed to support the use of renewable energy – specifically, decarbonisation targets for transport fuels which fuel suppliers must be obliged to meet. This is all the more pressing given transport is currently dependent on oil for 95% of its fuel, and with oil prices expected to remain low beyond 2020, the take-up of

renewable fuels will remain static or even decline.

• Advanced biofuels: set a dedicated target which will foster the commercial deployment of advanced biofuels. It is clear that the current RED has not sufficiently promoted advanced biofuels as multipliers are an ineffective measure.

• Higher blending limits: the Fuel Quality Directive currently prohibits supply of petrol with anything higher than a 10% ethanol content, preventing the EU’s climate ambitions to be met.

Allowing E20 is feasible and beneficial in reducing both CO2 and air pollutants.

• Fairer taxation: ethanol is, by energy content, the most heavily taxed transport fuel. Taxes should be based on energy content and carbon footprint so that the petrol-diesel imbalance is addressed and there is a level playing field between fossil and non-fossil fuels. l

march/april 2016 5

bioethanol news Indian scientists achieve breakthrough in low-cost ethanol production Scientists at the Indian Institute of Technology, Roorkee (IIT-R) have successfully generated low-cost biofuel using a perennial weed – the Kans grass.

The grass, native to the Indian subcontinent, grows up to three feet in height and, being widely available and perennial, comes at low cost.

“Through our technology, which we have now got patented, bioethanol will be produced as a substitute for petrol. This is a low-cost fuel, in comparison to other varieties of bioethanol now available across the world,” Sanjoy Ghosh, inventor of the technology and teacher of biochemical engineering at the IIT-R, told the Times of India newspaper.

Kans grass, known by the scientific name Saccharum spontaneum, was chosen as the feedstock due to its high yields, low cost, ability to grow in marginal lands with almost no water supply, and wide availability throughout the year.

Scientists at the Indian Institute of Technology, Roorkee (IIT-R) have successfully generated low-cost biofuel using a perennial weed, the Kans grass

“Kans is a weed that we have exploited for production of bioethanol through a unique process called fractional hydrolysis. It comes with minimum toxic product generation and maximum sugar recovery,” Ghosh said.

“There are various grasses

from which bioethanol is being produced. Among the most common is Eastern Gama grass (Trypsacum dactyloides).

However, scientists could recover around 37% cellulose and 22.1% hemicellulose from it. From Kans grass, we were able to recover over

43.78% cellulose and 24.22% hemicellulose,” he continued.

For superior quality ethanol, unique fermentation techniques are used. Generally available technologies give mixed sugars along with toxic compounds in the hydrolysis process, which makes fermentation difficult. l

ChemChina to acquire Syngenta in $43bn deal China’s state-owned ChemChina will acquire the Swiss agri business Syngenta in a longrumoured and controversial $43 billion (€39.4bn) deal.

Secrecy has surrounded the deal since November 2015, when Syngenta – the producer of bioengineered Enogen corn for the ethanol industry – received a $47 billion takeover offer from the US agricultural juggernaut Monsanto.

A Swiss and US tender offer will commence in the coming weeks and the transaction is expected to

conclude by the end of the year.

Syngenta’s board said the proposed transaction respects the interests of all stakeholders and it is unanimously recommending the offer, which will be ChemChina’s largest foreign purchase.

According to the board there is “committed financing for the deal and a strong commitment to pursue regulatory clearances”.

“In making this offer, ChemChina is recognising the quality and potential of Syngenta’s business.

This includes industry-leading R&D and manufacturing and the quality of our people worldwide,” said

Syngenta’s chairman Michel Demaré.

Syngenta’s existing management will continue to run the company, and after closing a 10 member board of directors will be chaired by Ren Jianxin, chairman of ChemChina, and will include four of the existing Syngenta board members.

“Syngenta will remain Syngenta and will continue to be headquartered in Switzerland,” said Demaré.

Syngenta hopes the transaction will enable it to expand its presence in emerging markets and notably in China. If approved, the deal will make ChemChina the world’s largest producer of pesticides and agrochemicals. l

6 march/april 2016 biofuels international

biodiesel news Neste posts strong fourth-quarter results Neste, a Finland-based renewable diesel producer, reported better than expected fourth-quarter profits and dividend thanks to high European refining margins and favourable foreign exchange rates.

Neste, which has two conventional refineries in Finland and renewable diesel refineries in Singapore and Rotterdam, said its core operating profit in the quarter rose 39% from a year ago to €352 million.

The company did not put a figure on its profit outlook for this year but it said it expected low crude oil prices to continue to support product demand.

In a statement, the company said that all areas of the business performed well for the fourth quarter of the year.

The firm’s Renewable Products arm recorded a full-year comparable operating profit of €402 million, compared to €239 million in 2014. Neste said that its Renewable Products’ average reference margin was lower than in 2014, but it was able to its additional margin.

Stronger US dollar had a positive impact on the segment’s result, boosting Neste’s sales volumes to a new record of 2.267 million tonnes, an 8% increase from the previous year.

A slightly higher share, 31% of the volume, was allocated to the North American market in 2015.

In a statement, Neste said: “In the US market the Environmental Protection

biofuels international

Agency (EPA) has finalised growing volume mandates for biomass-based diesel for 2016 and 2017, and the Blender’s Tax Credit (BTC)

was reinstated retroactively for 2015 and in advance for 2016.

“The positive contribution of the BTC on operating profit was higher in 2015

than in 2014. The use of waste- and residue feedstock was successfully expanded to average 68% of total renewable inputs in 2015.” l

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march/april 2016 7

biodiesel news REG signs agreement to acquire Sanimax’s biodiesel plant

Under the asset purchase agreement, REG will pay Sanimax around $11 million (€9.9m) in cash and will issue 500,000 shares of REG common stock in exchange for the biorefinery and related assets.

REG will also pay Sanimax up to an additional $5 million in cash over a period of up to seven years after closing based on the volume of biodiesel produced at the plant, which will be renamed REG Madison.

Photo courtesy of REG

Biofuels producer Renewable Energy Group (REG) has signed an asset purchase agreement with USbased rendering firm Sanimax Energy to acquire Sanimax’s 20 million gallon nameplate capacity biodiesel refinery located in DeForest, Wisconsin.

Renewable Energy Group is adding the 20 million gallon Sanimax biodiesel plant to its growing fleet of lowercost, lower-carbon biorefineries

Sanimax operates a grease processing facility at the same location, although that facility is not part of the acquisition.

Closing of the transaction is subject to customary closing conditions, REG said in a statement.

“With growing biomass-

based diesel volumes in the US, REG is continuing its growth as well,” said Daniel Oh, REG President and CEO. “This plant will add to our network of lower-cost, lower-carbon intensity, multifeedstock biorefineries. Having a dependable feedstock

supplier co-located next door should provide an opportunity for additional cost savings and logistical advantages.

We have done business with Sanimax and the Couture family for many years and look forward to a continuing prosperous relationship.” l

Queensland Government eyes biofuels fund to help economy

BSBIOS aims to double production in Marialva

The Queensland state government in Australia is to investigate the establishment of a biofutures industry development fund, which would look to financially assist “first mover” investment in the biofuels industry.

Brazilian biodiesel producer BSBIOS will invest BRL80 million (€18.3m) to double production at its Marialva unit.

Premier Annastacia Palaszcuk made the announcement following the second meeting of her Biofutures Cabinet Committee.

“I’ve said it before and I’ll say

it again: biofuels could have the same transformative effect on Queensland’s economy as the LNG industry, but it won’t happen without Government commitment,” Palaszcuk said.

“We already have a very constructive relationship with the US Navy, which is extremely interested in Queensland’s capacity to produce biofuels for their fleet.”

She added that global companies like food and beverage giant Asahi are tapping into Queensland’s research expertise in that space. l

The company expects the expansion to be concluded in 2017, boosting the site’s biodiesel production capacity from the current 208 million litres per year to 416 million.

BSBIOS has signed a memorandum of understanding with Parana’s state government.

The company will re-enter the Parana Competitivo programme, under which the government provides tax incentives.

The Marialva unit, which uses soya oil and animal fat as feedstock, will also have its glycerin production capacity doubled.

BSBIOS has two production sites, in Passo Fundo and in Marialva, with a combined capacity of 424.8 million litres of biodiesel per year. l

8 march/april 2016 biofuels international

biodiesel news Goodfuels Marine receives RSB certification for sustainable marine biofuels Dutch GoodFuels Marine, the first marine biofuel company focused on the global commercial fleet, has received the highest standard of certification from the Roundtable of Sustainable Biomaterials (RSB).

The two-year certification, which assesses the sustainable viability of the biomaterials used by GoodFuels to generate marine bunker fuel, enables the company to actively sell and promote RSB-certified biofuels to the shipping industry.

RSB has defined 12 principles to which biomaterials have to comply to be seen as sustainable and thereby eligible for the RSB stamp of approval, including the levels of CO2 reduction, human rights impacts, and legal criteria.

The certification follows an audit of GoodFuels Marine, conducted the global operations and laboratories inspection

GoodFuels’ sustainability committee (from left to right) Barbara Bramble, Chair of RSB Board of Directors; Martin Junginger, associate professor at Utrecht University; Patricia Osseweijer, professor of sustainability at TU Delft

network Control Union, and illustrates GoodFuels’ recognition for a globally accepted and standardised certification scheme that checks and guarantees the sustainability of biofuels to the highest standards.

Barbara Bramble, chair of RSB’s board of directors, said GoodFuels’ work “to change the story of marine shipping emissions”

convinced the organisation to award the certificate. “[Goodfuels] aim to promote the use of RSB-certified dropin marine fuels. By looking to source RSB certified fuels – the ‘gold standard’ for biofuels sustainability – GoodFuels will be paving the way for a more sustainable future for the marine transportation industry,” said Bramble.

Netherlands-based

GoodFuels Marine and its partners, global dredging and marine expert Boskalis and marine engine and power system supplier Wärtsilä, announced in October last year a twoyear pilot programme to accelerate the development of sustainable, scalable, and affordable drop-in marine biofuels for the commercial shipping industry. l

German biodiesel exports dip in 2015

Olso Airport ‘first’ to offer Neste biojet fuel

German biodiesel exports from January through November 2015 were down almost a quarter from the same period in 2014.

Oslo Airport Gardermoen is the world’s first airport to offer renewable aviation fuel refined by Neste for refueling airplanes.

This is shown by German Federal Statistical Office foreign trade figures. A total of 90% of exports went to EU member states.

According to Agrarmarkt Informations-Gesellschaft mbH (AMI), the sharp drop in biodiesel

exports was first and foremost based on a massive decline in deliveries to the Netherlands, France and Poland.

Demand from the Netherlands alone was down around 42% on the same period the previous year.

Orders from Poland plummeted by 38%, while exports to France slumped by 26%, allowing the country to barely maintain its second position.

Austria took third place, as exports there rose by just under one-fifth. l

Lufthansa, SAS, and KLM have already announced that they will be refueling their planes with aviation fuel containing a renewable component in Oslo.

Neste’s renewable aviation fuel is refined in Porvoo, and it meets the strict quality requirements for aviation fuels.

The fuel is transported to Oslo as a 50% blend with fossil aviation fuel, and its distribution takes place via the airport’s existing distribution system. l

10 march/april 2016 biofuels international

biodiesel news Abengoa plans restructuring to avoid insolvency, media report Spanish renewable energy business Abengoa is planning to restructure its firm, shrink itself by about a third to avoid bankruptcy and potentially sell off its bioenergy arm, according to media reports.

According to news agency Bloomberg, the firm is making the plans to convince creditors it can survive as a smaller company.

Quoting a person familiar with the matter, Bloomberg stated: “The company will reduce revenue by about 30% from the €7.15bn ($7.80bn) it recorded in 2014 while also paring back its geographic reach as part of a viability plan to be presented to banks and creditors, according to the person, who asked

not to be named because the decision hasn’t been made public. The company is also seeking to divest assets without selling its largest subsidiaries.”

Last month, Abengoa last month received a €106m euro credit-line from banks to help it get it through the end of the year. It’s working with auditors and financial advisers, including KPMG and Alvarez & Marsal, on mapping its debt and outlining a recovery plan.

Abengoa filed for preliminary debt protection on 25 November, which gave it a four-month window to avoid insolvency by reaching an agreement with creditors.

According to Bloomberg, Abengoa will seek to hold on to units including Abengoa Solar and Abengoa Water.

The report also stated that the company will be open to selling Abengoa Bioenergia because making biofuels

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reliability

Abengoa is making the plans to convince creditors it can survive as a smaller company

is not part of the company’s core business. Any sale would hinge on the sorts of offers Abengoa could attract for the unit, Bloomberg stated. l

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biofuels plant update

Plant update: Europe Air Liquide Location End product Feedstock Capacity Construction / expansion / acquisition

Completion date

Karlsruhe, Germany Second generation biofuel (bioliq) Wood, straw, plant waste 1 tpd Air Liquide has announced the start-up of a second generation biofuel production plant through the “bioliq” project in partnership with the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology March 2015

Celtic Renewables Location Grangemouth, Scotland End product Biobutanol Feedstock Whisky fermentation by-products Construction / expansion / Celtic Renewables is planning the acquisition construction of a biobutanol plant after successful tests on producing fuel from the remnants of whisky production Completion date Projected for 2018 Investment £10 million (€13m)

ArcelorMittal Location Ghent, Belgium End product Bioethanol Feedstock Waste gases from steel industry Capacity 47,000 tpy Construction / expansion / ArcelorMittal has entered into a letter acquisition of intent to construct a Europe’s first commercial scale ethanol-from-steelwaste-gas facility Designer/builder Primetals Technologies / Lanzatech Project start date 2011 Completion date Phase one mid-2017, phase two 2018 Investment €87 million

China New Energy Location Hungary End product Bioethanol Feedstock Corn Capacity 150,000 litres per day Construction / expansion / China New Energy has acquired a acquisition 24% stake in the Hungary-based Visontai Bioetanol Fejlesztő Korlátolt Felelősségű Társaság Completion date June 2015 Investment €250,000

Avril Location Sete, France End product Biodiesel Feedstock Rapeseed Capacity 100,000 tpy Construction / expansion / French biofuels producer Avril has acquisition opened a rapeseed-to-biodiesel facility in Mediterranean France Completion date October 2015 Investment €13 million

ecoMotion Biodiesel Location Barcelona, Spain End product Biodiesel Feedstock Oils and animal fats Capacity 31,000 tpy Construction / expansion / ecoMotion Biodiesel has completed the acquisition expansion of its Barcelona plant Designer/builder BioEnergy International Completion date May 2015

British Airways Location End product Feedstock Capacity Construction / expansion / acquisition Designer/builder Completion date

Thurrock, United Kingdom Renewable aviation biofuel Landfill waste 575,000 tonnes British Airways has been forced to cancel its plans to turn landfill waste into green jet fuel, partly due to lack of government support Solena Fuels The plant was due to open in 2017

GF Biochemicals Location End product Capacity Construction / expansion / acquisition Completion date Comment

Caserta, Italy Levulinic acid 10,000 MT/a Biobased chemical company GF Biochemicals has started commercial production at its levulinic acid plant July 2015 Levulinic acid can be used to produce potential biofuels, including methyltetrahydofuran, valerolactone, and ethyl levulinate

IBN-One Location France End product Isobutene Capacity 50,000 tonnes Construction / expansion / Cristal Union and Global Bioenergies acquisition have formed a joint venture to build and operate France’s first bio-sourced isobutene production plant Designer/builder Global Bioenergies Project start date May 2015 Completion date Projected for 2018 Investment €1 million Comment The joint venture is currently looking for additional funding and permits

12 march/april 2016 biofuels international

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Neste

Synsel Energi

Location End product Feedstock

Rotterdam, Netherlands Bio-based liquid petroleum gas Sidestream gases from NEXBTL refinery Capacity 40,000 tpy Construction / expansion / Neste has begun the construction of acquisition the world’s first bio LPG production facility Project start date Autumn 2014 Completion date Projected for end of 2016 Investment €60 million

North European Biotech Location End product Feedstock Capacity Construction / expansion / acquisition Designer/builder Completion date Comment

Gothenburg, Sweden Ethanol (Etanolix) Biowaste and bakery residues 5 million l/y St1 Biofuels has delivered an Etanolix ethanol plant to North European Biotech St1 Biofuels June 2015 The production capacity will be leased to North European Biotech’s sister company North European Oil Trade

Perstorp Location Fredrikstad, Norway End product Biodiesel Feedstock Rapeseed oil Construction / expansion / Perstorp has acquired an existing acquisition biodiesel plant Project start date September 2015 Completion date End of 2015

Sunshine Kaidi New Energy Location Kemi, Finland End product Biodiesel Feedstock Wood-based biomass Construction / expansion / Chinese Kaidi is planning to construct acquisition a wood-based biodiesel plant to utilise Finland’s forest resources Project start date February 2016 Completion date Projected for late 2019 Investment €1 billion

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Location End product Feedstock

Grenland, Norway Renewable fuel Forestry and agricultural residues, municipal waste Capacity 5 tpd Construction / expansion / SynSel Energi has entered into an acquisition IH2 process demonstration license agreement with CRI/Criterion Catalyst Company to build a demonstration plant Designer/builder Gas Technology Institute Project start date June 2015 Completion date End of 2015

Total Location La Mède, France End product Biodiesel Feedstock Used vegetable oils Capacity 500,000 tpy Construction / expansion / Total is planning to convert its La acquisition Mède refinery to produce biodiesel Designer/builder Axens Project start date April 2015 Investment €200 million

Ukrspyrt Location Ternopil, Ukraine End product Bioethanol Construction / expansion / Ukrainian state-run spirits group acquisition Ukrspyrt has brought online an upgraded bioethanol plant Completion date March 2015 Investment UAH 60 million (€2.3 million) Comment The facility was launched on the premises of Zarubynsky spirits plant, creating 100 jobs

Verbio Vereinigte BioEnergie Location Schwedt, Germany End product Biomethane Feedstock Straw Capacity Eventual 140GWh annually Construction / expansion / Verbio Vereinigte BioEnergie AG has acquisition successfully commissioned a site for the production of biomethane Project start date October 2014 Investment €22.3 million Comment The plant is commissioned and production will be scaled up until 2019 *This list is based on information made available to Biofuels International at the time of printing. If you would like to update the list with any additional plant information for future issues, please email liz@woodcotemedia.com

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technology news Amyris launches Pathways Program Amyris, an industrial bioscience company, has launched its Pathways Program to provide partners a low-cost, low-risk opportunity to access Amyris’ synthetic biology technology.

Through the Pathways Program partners can, with a small initial investment, sponsor and secure a molecule they are interested in having Amyris produce using the next generation tools and technologies being developed through the company’s recently announced technology investment agreement with the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA).

According to the company, its programme opens up Amyris’ advanced technology platform and leading capabilities to researchers and companies wishing to determine the viability of biological production of target molecules at a lower cost and with minimised risk.

Amyris expects the combination of its existing core technology and bioengineering advancements enabled by its project with DARPA to reduce the

Amyris’ new programme opens up its technology platform to researchers and companies

time and cost of bringing new molecules to market using industrial biotechnology.

The Pathways Program allows partners to access these latest developments and explore biosynthetic production opportunities with minimal risk and commitment.

The Pathways Program, Amyris said, provides partners with a de-risked

opportunity to use Amyris’ capabilities and advanced tools and methodologies for the construction of organisms that convert sugar to the partner’s target molecule.

The successful completion of the organism engineering potentially provides a new mode of production with secure stable supply from a renewable resource. l

Pine Lake Corn Processors improves ethanol production with Whitefox technology Whitefox Technologies, a clean fuel membrane specialist, has signed an agreement with Pine Lake Corn Processors (PLCP) to install the first Whitefox ICE Solution in the US Midwest.

PLCP operates a 30 million gpy ethanol plant in Steamboat Rock, Iowa, where Whitefox’s technology is set to reduce energy consumption, increase production efficiencies, and contribute to the production of low carbon ethanol.

“Our objective is to reduce the consumption of water, energy, and emissions in the production of ethanol while increasing our ethanol output, helping to further improve our profitability. Whitefox’s technology is enabling us to more effectively reach PLCP’s goal,” PLCP CEO James Broghammer stated.

The global market for renewable energy in general is expected to grow exponentially in the coming years, and increasing the proportion of renewable fuel for transport will play an important role in reducing emissions from the transport sector.

Minimising waste and the impact on the environment and increasing operational efficiency will be key to the growth of the ethanol sector.

Whitefox’s technology enables the efficient production of various grades of ethanol, including fuel and industrial, in a single continuous step and has been successfully used by ethanol producers across various sectors.

The agreement follows February’s announcement in relation to the installation of the Whitefox ICE solution at a Pacific Ethanol plant in Madera, California, and reflects the move by US producers to improve the overall efficiency of production. l

Elmac unveils new flame arresters Elmac Technologies, a UK-based flame arrestor manufacturer, has developed a new series of unstable detonation arresters.

A flame arrestor is a safety device which allows gas to pass through it but stops a flame in order to prevent a larger fire or explosion.

According to the company, Elmac’s new system protects against unstable detonations, stable detonations, and deflagrations. l

14 march/april 2016 biofuels international

technology news Flint Hills Resources licenses Edeniq’s cellulosic ethanol technology Edeniq has signed an agreement with Flint Hills Resources, a US ethanol producer, to license Edeniq’s Pathway Technology for all of its ethanol plants.

Flint Hills has been an investor in Edeniq since April 2012 and a customer since June 2012.

Edeniq’s Pathway Technology integrates Edeniq’s Cellunator high shear equipment with cellulase enzymes to convert corn kernel fibre to cellulosic ethanol.

The technology utilises existing fermentation and distillation equipment

to produce up to 2.5% cellulosic ethanol and a 7% increase in overall ethanol yield.

Edeniq’s Pathway Technology includes a proprietary technical validation process that enables customers to quantify the amount of cellulosic ethanol produced within their plants and comply with the registration, record-keeping, and reporting required by the EPA to generate cellulosic D3 Renewable Identification Numbers (RINs) as defined by the Renewable Fuel Standard.

Edeniq develops analytical methods to quantify cellulosic ethanol coproduced with conventional ethanol during fermentation, which is required to access regulatory value. l

Alliance BioEnergy partners with Harvesting Technology to enhance ethanol production process Alliance BioEnergy Plus has formed a strategic alliance with Harvesting Technology (HT) for the inclusion of its licensed and patented advanced separation process.

Alliance plans to utilise the separation technology alongside its CTS cellulose conversion process in ethanol applications.

When used in a dry mill corn ethanol plant, the HT process is able to separate the backend whole stillage into an additional one pound of distillers corn oil (DCO) per bushel – more than double the current process – and other high fibre distiller’s grain co-products.

At the same time, the system reduces the need for high energy centrifuges and evaporators.

The co-products can then be processed through Alliance’s CTS unit and fermented into high quality cellulosic ethanol, adding up to 6 million gallons of ethanol output to a 55 million gpy plant without bringing in an outside feedstock.

With the sale of the additional DCO and the added cellulosic ethanol output

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produced through the combination of Alliance’s process and the HT separation unit, more than $41 million (€36.7m) can potentially be added to the bottomline of an existing corn ethanol plant.

Additionally, because of the CTS modular design, it can easily convert up to 1,000 tonnes a day of virtually any outside cellulose feedstock, which presents another possibility of increasing the bottom-line by an additional $40 million through the increased cellulosic ethanol output and advanced biofuel incentives.

The processes can each be bolted on to an existing ethanol plant for a fraction of the cost involved with building a new facility.

“For the first time this gives an ethanol producer an option to use what they have in-house to increase output, or bring in outside biomass to seriously increase output, or both,” said Alliance CEO Daniel de Liege The HT process is currently running successfully at an operating ethanol plant in Illinois and should prove to be a strategic enhancement to Alliance’s CTS cellulose conversion process in ethanol applications, the company said in a statement. l

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biofuels business brief

People on the move David Pummell takes lead of Velocys as new CEO Velocys, a smaller scale gasto-liquids (GTL) company, has appointed of David Pummell as CEO with immediate effect.

Prior to joining Velocys, Pummell, aged 58, was CEO of ACAL Energy, a private equitybacked fuel cell technology company developing products for the automotive and stationary power sectors.

With over 30 years of energy and oil industry experience, Pummel has also acted as CEO of MAPS Technology, where he successfully commercialised the technology leading to its subsequent acquisition by GE, before becoming CEO of Ceres Power Group, a developer of fuel cell micro-combined heat and power (CHP) products for the domestic stationary power sector.

He began his career at BP as a chemical engineer before going on to hold a number of executive positions across the downstream business, including petrochemical manufacturing, supply chain, new business start-ups, and a number of senior business and functional management roles during his 22 year tenure.

Pummell has a first class Bachelor of Science Honours

Velocys will proceed under the leadership of David Pummell

degree in chemical engineering.

Pierre Jungels, CBE, chairman at Velocys, said Pummell’s “extensive experience, complementary skill set, and outstanding track record of commercialising technologies” means that he is well-positioned to drive the company forward.

Evogene appoints Eyal Leibovitz as CFO The Israeli crop productivity improvement and economics company Evogene has appointed Eyal Leibovitz as CFO. Leibovitz has replaced Sigal Fattal, who has been with Evogene since June 2012 and will remain until end of January 2016 to ensure a smooth transition.

Robert D. Burke resigns from Dyadic’s board of directors ny Robert D. Burke has resigned from global biotech compa related all and rs directo Dyadic International’s board of board committees, which included the compensation and nominating committees of the board effective.

Burke had served on Dyadic’s board of directors since June 2008.

“We appreciate Robert’s leadership and his contributions a over the past eight years as the company has undergone ny compa the guide successful transformation and in helping y hnolog Biotec ial through the sale of Dyadic’s Industr business to DuPont’s Industrial Biosciences for $75 million (€68.5m),” said Michael Tarnok, chairman at Dyadic.

“The board and management of Dyadic would like to thank Robert for his service to Dyadic and we wish him well in his future business endeavours,” Tarnok concluded.

Leibovitz will report to Ofer Haviv, Evogene’s president and CEO, and will have executive responsibility for all corporate functions of the company.

Leibovitz brings with him an extensive background in senior management, finance, investor relations, M&A, and business development in international companies headquartered in both Israel and the US. In his last role he served as CFO and member of the executive committee of N-trig, an electronic inking company.

Prior to this, Leibovitz served as the CFO of Kamada and as the international controller of Harmonic, headquartered in California and operating in the digital video space.

He holds a Bachelor of Business Administration degree from the City University of New York.

“A key objective for Leibovitz will be to increase the awareness in the US financial market of Evogene’s capabilities in providing next generation products for the enhancement of agriculture and of our rapidly growing presence in multiple key market areas,” says Haviv.

Missouri and Nebraska Governors to head Governors’ Biofuels Coalition Governors’ Biofuels Coalition, a US politicians’ ethanol advocacy group, has appointed Missouri Governor Jay Nixon as chairman and

Eyal Leibovitz will head Evogene’s corporate functions as its new CFO

Governor of the US state of Missouri Jay Nixon is the new chairman of Governors’ Biofuels Coalition

Nebraska Governor Pete Ricketts as vice chairman.

“For more than 20 years, the Governors’ Biofuels Coalition has worked in a bipartisan way to strengthen American energy independence and create jobs in rural communities,” Governor Nixon said.

“I look forward to working with Governor Ricketts to promote the production and use of biofuels because, in addition to diversifying our energy portfolio, they also give consumers more choices at the pump, reduce harmful emissions, and increase family incomes in rural America.”

Now that the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has issued its final biofuel blending rule, the Coalition will continue to advocate for policies that grow the biofuel industry, such as proposing legislation that will encourage investment in the nation’s advanced biofuel industry and restoring the fuel economy credits.

The Coalition also plans to ask asking EPA to enforce Section 202 of the Clean Air Act to limit aromatics and open the market for ethanol as a source of clean octane.

Governor Nixon and Governor Ricketts both thanked Iowa Governor Terry Branstad for his leadership of the Coalition last year and for his national leadership on renewable energy policy. l

16 march/april 2016 biofuels international

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SCB Commodity Brokers Global Biofuels Prices Prices quoted: 19/01/2016 Product

Mid Price

URL: www.starcb.com

Product

Mid Price

EU Biodiesel RED ($/mt)

US Biodiesel B100 ($/gal)

FOB ARA RME

830.50

Houston SME

2.689

FOB ARA SME

765.50

Houston TME

2.569

FOB ARA PME

650.50

NY Harbour SME

2.649

FOB ARA FAME 0

745.50

NY Harbour TME

2.569

FOB ARA FAME -10

830.50

Mid West SME

2.589

EU Biodiesel Non RED ($/mt)

US Ethanol ($/gal)

FOB ARA RME

815.50

NY Harbour Barges

1.43

FOB ARA SME

750.50

Argo ITT Illinois

1.33

FOB ARA PME

635.50

FOB USGC

1.43

FOB ARA FAME 0

730.50

Rule 11 TWS (Railcar)

1.33

FOB ARA FAME -10

815.50

Rule 11 NWS (Railcar)

1.34

EU Ethanol (€/cbm)

RINs ($/RIN)

T2 FOB Rotterdam

2016 Ethanol (D6)

0.653

US Ethanol ($/cbm)

2016 Biodiesel (D4)

0.713

FOB US ANP

392.30

2016 Advanced (D5)

0.705

FOB Santos

550.00

Emission Credits ($/mt)

570.00

LCFS Credits

120.00

Current price index

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he European ethanol market continued to show an exceptional performance from Q4 2015 into the start of 2016 given the meltdown in other commodities, keeping its levels within €560-650/m3 price range. With the plunge in the energy markets, which saw crude oil sink below $30 per barrel to its lowest in 12 years, and petrol’s sprint down to $350 per tonne, ethanol saw its spread to energy creep closer to a $500 per tonne premium. Towards midJanuary the T2/Ebob spread broke through $480 per tonne.

Grains also followed crude downward, seeing Matif wheat keeping its bearish trend for the last couple of months.

But despite all the pressure from other markets, 2H January ethanol physical

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prices remained in €570-580/ m3 range, seeing the structure at the front of the curve still heavily inverted, with January /February spreads in particular as wide as €30/m3.

Demand for prompt physical is still strong with the regional markets incapable of replenishing the ongoing shortages caused by earlier production losses in Europe.

Backwardation, however, looks narrower into more deferred quarters as the market expects to see more T2 supplies arriving from the US and South America in the coming months.

Waste grades have yet again been the one bright spot in the European biodiesel trade so far this year. As the economics for ethanol have deteriorated recently, biodiesel has taken up a

bigger percentage of the blend especially in the UK. Although Ucome spreads to gasoil and Fame 0c have rallied, double counting dynamics still look very competitive compared to other biodiesel grades.

Many obligated parties in the UK have underblended, and with the end of the mandate year coming up in mid-April there has been a rush to blend Ucome cargoes in the UK. While counterintuitive, given Ucome’s typical limitation as a summer blend, refiners have been fortunate with mild winter weather into early January, although problems with the blend have still emerged.

These circumstances have opened up opportunities for HVO producers to sell double counting HVO into the UK and establish a new trade flow.

Mainland European markets have been slower as many term contracts were put in place before Christmas and buyers have yet to come back into the spot market.

Although in theory mandated markets are immune from the continued downtrend in petroleum products, there are some concerns that these historically high premiums for biodiesel are having a negative effect on trade.

Buyers are in some instances delaying purchases.

High spreads historically have had the effect of delaying buyers from coming to market but not stopping them entirely.

However, there will be a point at which oil companies in some jurisdictions may decide to pay fines for not blending instead of physically blending or buying tickets. l

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biofuels big interview Changing global attitudes towards renewable energy may open new door for cellulosic biofuel

Paolo Corvo, head of business development for biofuels and derivatives at Clariant

Big interview

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lariant, a Swiss speciality chemicals manufacturer, has invested in innovative technology to promote cellulosic biofuels.

Liz Gyekye caught up with the company’s biofuels and derivatives head of business development, Paolo Corvo, (pictured right) to find out more.

Where do you expect demand to come from?

The global energy landscape is constantly changing.

We are facing a growing list of challenges, such as reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions while at the same time having to secure food supply and strengthen energy security for a growing population and increasing industrialisation. Cellulosic ethanol from agricultural residues, a resource globally available within current agricultural practices, allows a significant reduction in carbon dioxide emissions without competing with food or for agricultural acreage.

Tackling these challenges has led to an overall understanding that energy from renewable resources will have to play an ever increasing role in our daily lives and many governments have set ambitious targets to foster the development and implementation of innovative technologies to make these resources accessible for use.

This specifically applies to the transport sector and we are convinced that liquid fuels will continue to play an important role in the foreseeable future.

In the end, we will need

a stable and secure supply of energy, chemicals, and materials that will live up to the demand of a rising population.

To achieve this, we will use all resources in the most efficient way. Thus, the bio-based industry will play a substantial role in providing sustainable solutions and business plans that are based on leading competitive technologies – such as sunliquid, Clariant’s cellulosic fuel technology – providing a commercially attractive opportunity.

Market potential and growth in different regions will strongly depend on several factors such as feedstock supply and logistics, product off-take and application opportunities, and regulatory framework. The better these conditions are, the more likely it is that projects will develop in those areas.

Take the US for example.

Due to the support that has been provided through grants and loan guarantees, investments in commercial plants have been fostered. With its incentive structure, the state of California has developed a role model in developing CO2 mitigation opportunities.

What is set to be the next biggest trend for the bioethanol industry?

The discussions and agreement at COP21 in Paris last December gave a strong and positive signal that climate change has to be addressed urgently through joint global action. It shows the will of the nations to embrace policies that enable needed change. Along with

the current oil crisis, the oil companies are facing a set of new challenges and recently more refineries have become idle. The growing interest and awareness by the end user for more sustainable products and the instability of the fossil fuel supply creates a different market approach for many.

A strong driver for other industries as well is the need to market more sustainable solutions, reducing GHG emissions and moving to renewable materials. At the same time these processes and technologies will have to become extremely efficient.

Biotechnology will take on a major role in supporting the production of cleaner materials and energy.

What is the one thing the industry should do more of in 2016?

The industry, in a joint effort, should push the countries and their governments to implement mandatory blending targets, which are to be flanked by a penalty for non-fulfilment and for more support along the entire value chain such as funds for farmers to invest into the collection of biomass. Higher ethanol blends would greatly help the market introduction of advanced cellulosic ethanol.

In addition, they should push for commercial deployment

of technology as opposed to only R&D support for early stage technology that will take years to potentially become commercially viable.

Some might say that EU decisions to increase the proportion of renewable energies in the transport sector may lead to further market growth.

Do you agree?

To countervail climate change and to take account of the long-term finite supply of fossil fuels, renewable energy resources for energy generation will be key and thus also create demand and market growth for cellulosic ethanol.

Even though electricity from renewable energy will play a role in the energy mix, liquid fuels will still dominate as a main source to fulfil the enormous energy demand of the transport sector. Biofuels from agricultural residues and waste will be able to satisfy this growing demand and contribute to the climate and environmental goals without competing with increasingly scarce resources for the food and feed production.

This is also supported by oil giant BP’s prediction in the BP Energy Outlook that fossil fuels will remain the dominant form of energy. BP anticipates global consumption of oil, biofuels, and other liquids to

18 march/april 2016 biofuels international

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grow by 20 million barrels per day (bpd) to reach 112 million bpd by 2035 with renewables growing rapidly and quadrupling by 2035 and supplying a third of the growth in power generation.

What do you think will represent the biggest challenge to the biofuels industry?

The biggest challenge and struggle is the development of the biofuel market. The implementation of mandates at country level is the next key important short-term objective to foster stable regulatory conditions and to strengthen interest of investors.

What is set to be big for Clariant in terms of bioethanol this year?

In the beginning of this year Clariant’s sunliquid

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technology was awarded with the German Innovation Price for Climate and Environment by the Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation, Building, and Nuclear Safety (BMUB) and the Federation of German Industries (BDI). The award from the Federal Ministry validates our approach and shows that biofuels from agricultural residues play a key role in making mobility more sustainable worldwide.

The focus of our sunliquid platform is the conversion of agricultural residues into biofuels, but in addition to the latter, our customers are also interested in the sunliquid platform for the conversion of sugars to biobased products or ethanol for non-fuel applications. One example is the collaboration with Werner & Mertz, the

producer of Frosch cleaning products in Germany. Clariant has launched a project which extends the application of bioethanol based on agricultural residues, such as straw, to cleaning agents in a scalable and commercial way.

Since the beginning of the year, the cooperation partner Werner & Mertz is using sunliquid cellulosic ethanol for its Frosch Bio-Spiritus multi-purpose cleaner.

What’s next for Clariant in relation to its bioethanol expansion plans?

Through years of optimisation, adjustments and extensive testing in our sunliquid pre-commercial plant in Straubing, Germany, we have discovered working solutions and established an efficient process that

guarantees a stable pretreatment of the feedstock and thus a continuous production of cellulosic ethanol. Our sunliquid technology allows us to do the pre-treatment chemicalfree in standard and proven equipment from the longestablished pulp and paper industry, which significantly reduces any up-scaling risks. We have also been successful in lowering the cost of enzymes via on-site process integrated enzyme production, which lowers the cost contribution of enzymes to less than 10% of the total production costs for cellulosic ethanol. Clariant has delivered on the technology side and its sunliquid process is market ready. The time has now come for legislators to implement specific mandates for advanced biofuels. l

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biofuels technology At the Madrid Technology Center, more than 400 researchers and scientists are actively engaged in projects aimed at improving the value of the energy chain through technological innovation

Automating advanced biofuels development Spanish biofuel producer has increased its productivity through extensive automation

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or decades, consumers around the world have depended on fossil fuels such as gas and oil to meet their energy requirements. Although they are continually being formed through natural processes, fossil fuels are widely considered to be non-renewable resources.

They take extended periods of time to form, and the currently available reserves are being consumed at a far greater rate than they are being replenished. As a result, there is an ever-increasing interest in the development of sustainable biofuels as energy providers search for constant, reliable alternative energy sources capable of meeting the unrelenting growth in consumer demand.

Today, advanced biofuels can be generated from non-food crops, and there is particular interest in the use of micro-organisms to develop novel energy sources.

Advanced biofuels produced from micro-organisms are

generally more sustainable than traditional biofuels generated from edible crops, and the yields are also higher.

However, the development process brings its own challenges to the laboratory, as the investigation of new biological applications involves screening of large numbers of mutants of different microorganisms, selecting the best performing candidates for further studies. Automation is the way forward, enabling high throughput screening of thousands of different mutations, as well as extended periods of walkaway operation.

The Spanish case One company benefitting from the implementation of automated processes for research into advanced biofuels is the Spanish energy producer Repsol.

At the company’s Madrid Technology Center, more than 400 researchers and scientists are actively engaged

in projects aimed at improving the value of the energy chain through technological innovation, contributing to a safer, smarter, and cleaner energy model.

In the biotechnology department, high throughput techniques are being applied to the investigation of potential drop-in molecules, which can be used as a fuel without any further modification or blended with existing fuels. To help drive the process forward, automated techniques are vital, and the company has established colony picking and enzymatic assays on two complementary liquid handling platforms to provide the extended walkaway times required to meet the high throughput demands of its biofuel research.

The development process The development of biofuels from micro-organisms begins by targeting a particular molecule, using standard

microbiological methods to reproduce it in the laboratory.

Simultaneously, Repsol’s computational team performs thousands of calculations designed to explore every conceivable mutation and modification of the selected enzyme or biological pathway and establish which ones are likely to generate the greatest possible yield.

The results are subsequently implemented in the laboratory, generating thousands of clones which researchers then need to investigate to see whether they perform as expected. In this situation, high throughput screening is essential, allowing the best candidates to be identified and taken forward for further research. Several cycles of directed evolution – or protein engineering – and additional screening follow, as the process advances towards the company’s goal of producing a commercially viable product.

Once the initial clones of interest have been generated, they must be isolated by

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Scientists are researching the development of fossil fuel alternatives, such as advanced biofuels

colony picking. With such vast numbers of clones to isolate, this is a slow and time-consuming process when performed manually, and can also be prone to human error. Therefore, automation was the key to success.

Repsol implemented the process on a Freedom EVO workstation from Tecan equipped with a Pickolo colony-picker by SciRobotics, Robotic Manipulator (RoMa) and Liquid Handling (LiHa) arms, 350µl Tecan sterile nested LiHa disposable tips, a plate sealer, and a storage carousel, also from SciRobotics. Petri dishes containing the colonies to be studied are stored in the integrated carousel and the mutants harvested using the colony-picker. After transfer to a microplate, overnight incubation allows the mutants to be grown separately in individual plate wells prior to transfer to a second Freedom EVO system configured for high throughput.

This instrument – equipped with a RoMa arm, a MultiChannel arm 96, 200µl Tecan Sterile disposable tips

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Automation is central to the biotechnology department’s research

(standard and nested), three Teleshakes from Inheco, a Te­VacS, a 10-plate hotel, a Tecan Carousel and an

modification introduced makes a difference or not. This helps to determine which proteins have the most potential

Robust software scripts have been developed in-house that allow straightforward operation of the systems for routine tasks Infinite 200 PRO microplate reader, as well as Magellan data analysis software (all from Tecan) – is used to extract the target protein and carry out enzymatic assays to determine whether the

for further development.

As the laboratory generates up to 10,000 colonies per week, long periods of walkaway automation are essential for optimal efficiency and throughput. Repsol has

successfully maximised its walkaway times by using nested disposable tips on its colony picking and high throughput platforms, freeing staff to undertake other tasks in the laboratory. In particular, the laboratory has benefitted from the novel design of the 350µl nested LiHa disposable tips, which incorporate a frame between each tray. This important development ensures that the trays fit together and the stack remains in perfect alignment, eliminating tip pick-up failures and making the workflow more robust and efficient. Nested tips make a real difference, as it makes no sense to invest in automation if scientists still need to return to the platform every 20 minutes to manually place tips on the workdeck.

Repsol has been using its colony picking and high throughput workstations for around two years now, enabling the laboratory to carry out complicated processes that would be almost impossible to perform manually in a timely and cost-effective manner.

Robust software scripts have been developed in-house that allow straightforward operation of the systems for routine tasks and, by running the enzymatic assays overnight, the laboratory gains 10 to 12 hours a day as the samples are ready for use the next morning.

Compared to manual processes, the automated protocols are much more precise and, with traceability provided by barcodes, the laboratory has total control of the entire procedure. At Repsol, automation has proved a real asset in the search for constant, reliable alternative energy sources. l For more information: This article was written by Bernd Maisenhölder, team leader of product management consumables at Tecan Schweiz, and Jose Miguel Seoane, researcher in the biotechnology department at Repsol Technology Center. Visit: www.tecan.com and www.repsol.com

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biofuels market analysis The US biodiesel market is off to a sputtering start for 2016

A new year’s promises

Brian Milne, product manager, Schneider Electric

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conomic considerations alone would erase spot trading for biodiesel in the US amid low oil prices, with ultra-low sulphur diesel fuel futures traded on the New York Mercantile Exchange breaking below $1 per gallon in January for the first time in 11 and half years. West Texas Intermediate, the US crude benchmark, and Brent, the international crude price marker, both fell below $30 bbl in January for the first time in 12 years, and a price recovery was seen as a long way off by many analysts at the time.

Diesel fuel, heating oil, and soya methyl ester B100 spot prices all trade in a basis or have their value set in a cash differential to the ULSD futures contract, with physicallytraded diesel and heating oil also declining below $1 per gallon. In some regional spot markets, physicallytraded heating oil dropped to the low $0.80 per gallon.

These values contrast sharply with SME B100 spot values that hovered in the mid $2.60 to $2.70 gallon range, with biodiesel to be blended into diesel fuel and heating oil.

There was very little trading in the spot physical market for biodiesel early in 2016, with poor economics joining weak

demand for distillate grades to freeze out deal-making for bulk transactions of the biofuel.

are identified as D4 credits, which traded in the low to mid $0.70s range in January.

RFS to the rescue

Tax credits

Sounds bleak, but the US biodiesel industry had something to cheer, with government largesse ensuring an expansion for biodiesel consumption, including an expanded mandate for demand and tax subsidy to incentivise blending.

To meet a deadline agreed to in a legal settlement with trade groups representing the oil industry, the US Environmental Protection Agency on the last day of November 2015 finalised the annual demand mandates under the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS) for 2016, while also issuing RFS requirements for 2014 and 2015. For biomass-based diesel fuel, one of the five “nested” renewable fuels categories under the RFS, the mandate was finalised through 2017, offering clearer visibility for biodiesel producers and obligated parties, including oil refiners, importers, and blenders.

Under the RFS, 1.9 billion gallons of biodiesel is required to be blended with petroleumbased oil products this year, climbing to 2 billion gallons in 2017. An obligated party can acquire the credit used to show compliance with the RFS in the open market known as a renewable identification number (RIN), with an RIN generated when a qualified renewable is produced at a US facility or imported into the country.

B100 spot prices include the RIN, with biodiesel sold at a discount when the RIN has been stripped from the renewable and sold in the open market.

Biomass-based diesel RINs

In December, Congress passed legislation retroactively renewing a $1 per gallon tax credit for blending biodiesel into diesel fuel or heating oil for 2015 through the end of 2016. The blender’s tax credit and RIN are intended to bridge the wide gulf between spot biodiesel

and distillate fuel prices.

Led by the National Biodiesel Board (NBB), the US trade organisation for biodiesel, there was a strong effort to shift the tax subsidy from the blender’s level to producers under the argument that imported biodiesel can also claim the $1 per gallon credit from the US Treasury.

“We have yet to hear any member of Congress articulate why US tax dollars should be used to support foreign production,” said NBB’s

US total production index

Distillate fuels supplied to US market

EPA qualified biomass-based diesel production

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VP of federal affairs Anne Steckel following the credit’s reinstatement, arguing that it increases US biodiesel imports.

“Clearly, incentivising predatory biodiesel imports was not the intent of Congress, so we will continue urging Congress to make this reform.”

But blenders hold a different view. The New England Fuel Institute (NEFI) said in December it “had warned members of Congress that a proposal to move the credit to the producer level was premature and could have unforeseen consequences on the heating oil market and biodiesel supplies and prices in New England.”

States in New England and the Mid-Atlantic make up the world’s largest concentration of homes and small businesses that depend on heating oil for space heating, with New York accounting for roughly 25% of this market. NEFI,

the NBB, and others worked together to establish industry standards for bioheat fuel, a 5% concentration of biodiesel into heating oil.

New York City mandates a 5% blend of biodiesel for all heating oil sold in the city.

Weak distillate demand After a couple of years with uncertainty regarding RFS requirements and whether the blender’s credit would again be reinstated, biodiesel producers and marketers are contending with another issue, namely weak demand for distillate fuels.

Winter weather in the Northeast US was a no show in late 2015, and US manufacturing contracted in November and December with diesel fuel in the US primarily used in industrial and commercial settings.

For-hire truck tonnage increased 2.6% in 2015 from

2014, but had slowed late in the year, according to the American Trucking Associations (ATA).

“With year-over-year gains averaging just 1.2% over the last four months, there was a clear deceleration in truck tonnage,” said ATA chief economist Bob Costello, worrying about high inventory levels throughout the supply chain.

“This will have a negative impact on truck freight volumes over the next few months at least. And, this inventory cycle is overriding any strength from consumer spending and housing at the moment.”

The US Energy Information Administration (EIA) reported in its Short-term Energy Outlook for January that demand for distillate fuels in the US declined by 80,000 bpd or 1.9% to 3.96 million bpd in 2015 while biodiesel production averaged 85,000 bpd.

EIA does project distillate

fuels in the US to recapture that demand this year, forecasting an increase in distillate demand of 80,000 bpd for both this year and in 2017. The greater consumption is seen generated by a growing US economy.

In the same outlook, EIA also expects the finalised RFS targets for the next two years to generate strong demand for biodiesel, hiking its expectations for US biodiesel production to increase by more than 20% in 2016 from 2015 to 107,000 bpd, and to climb to 112,000 bpd in 2017. EIA also sees US biomass-based diesel imports jumping nearly 70% from 28,000 bpd in 2015 to 47,000 bpd this year and in 2017. l For more information: This article was written by Brian Milne, who manages the refined fuel’s editorial content, spot price discovery activity and cash market analysis for Schneider Electric. Milne has nearly 20 years’ experience in the energy industry as an analyst, journalist and editor. +1 952 851 7216

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biofuels market analysis The looming end of sugar production quotas in Europe can open new horizons for the continent’s ethanol industry

2017: A road fuel odyssey

F

rom 2017, the European sugar market deregulates.

Production quotas – the mainstay sugar production – will be swept away, along with guaranteed prices. Along with that, Europe’s splendid isolation within the sugar world, barricaded away behind the World Trade Organization’s (WTO) enforced limitations, should also come to an end and Europe’s sugar industry will emerge blinking to a new dawn.

For many of those active in the sugar industry, the change brings some uncertainty. But what could it spell for ethanol, where sugar contributes some 25% of total production?

Currently Europe’s ethanol production is dominated by wheat. According to Platts data, the core European nations held at least 7.4 billion litres of production capacity, with the bulk split between grains (mostly wheat) and beet.

With so much of Europe’s production focused on wheat, the bastion of domestic ethanol production looks relatively secure, not least because production facilities have some limited flexibility to switch between corn and wheat.

A wholesale move to processing beet would also be difficult to countenance without substantial investment. Furthermore, the uncertainties that continue to swirl around biofuels mean that there are no substantial investment programmes to bolster the region’s capacity or see a significant swing towards beet over grains.

The final countdown October 2017 will see the end of nationally established production quotas for sugar beet. Beet exceeding the quota – which stood at 13.5 million tonnes of sugar for the 2014/15 campaign – could be exported, within strict limits set by the WTO. But anything over and above cannot be used for food and may end up stoking the ethanol production facilities of France and Germany.

Post-2017, the WTO’s regime – wholly a response to the EU’s domestic arrangements – is expected to be dismantled too, which may well see surging production levels and an increase in sugar production.

Such an arrangement may result in up to 6% more beet

EUROPE’S BIOFUELS FEEDSTOCK LANDSCAPE % Wheat

Corn

Sugar

pool, but once sugar is marked as OOQ it typically trades at a discount. The bumper crop of 2014/15 came in around 19 million tonnes, which is 5.5 million tonnes over the quota with just over 4 million tonnes remaining after the WTO’s volume is removed.

The 2015/16 campaign is looking lighter, closer to 15 million tonnes according to the expectations of trading sources. That in itself is a far more comfortable fit with the current requirements, but post-2017 the OOQ discount will disappear. Against that backdrop, even cheaper global sugar prices may not redress the discount that OOQ relished.

Or, “the rise in out-of-quota beet prices dampens any increase in sugar-ethanol manufacture post quota abolition,” as a UK report into the post-2017 picture for cane refining, published by the UK’s Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs in December 2015, concluded.

Ace in the hole Another potential plus for sugar beet is the move towards greater weighting

EU SUGAR PRODUCTION Other

Austria Belgium Czech Republic France Germany Hungary Netherlands Spain UK

20

(million mtwv)

Quota

Out-of-quota

15 10 5

0 Source: Platts

by 2020 when compared with maintaining the production levels under the quota system.

That is one possible scenario, and within it, excess sugar volumes are likely to target export markets while also bringing downward pressure to sugar prices within Europe.

Even without the increase in production, EU prices have maintained a strong advantage over the world price, with many anticipating the delta between the higher EU price and the world price to erode with deregulation. And that is with sugar markets that already reflect five years of oversupply.

So the re-emergence of the EU as a global sugar player may have ramifications for world sugar prices, which in turn spawns expectations of further pressure coming to global white sugar prices. But in itself, such development does not guarantee a clear attraction for those producing ethanol.

The caveat blunting sugar’s role in the current European ethanol mix is related to the out-of-quota (OOQ) nature of supply. The WTO mandates that 1.35 million tonnes of OOQ sugar may be exported. The remainder goes to the ethanol

20

40

60

80

100

0

2011-12

Source: Platts

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2014-15

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for greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions – the GHG setting.

All the rage in Germany, Europe’s biggest biofuel market, there has been a tacit expectation that the rest of Europe will move towards the same standards Germany has established. In that eventuality, sugar beet performs well versus the incumbent wheat and corn. Behind sugar cane, which never embraced the European climate as readily as the humble beet, it is the highest performer, coming ahead even of wheat and corn produced in state-of-the-art, gas-fired cogeneration ethanol facilities, and performing significantly ahead of wheat from a conventional facility.

But the counterpoint to this great opportunity is the net impact of GHG consideration.

In the GHG model, outperforming your rivals and contributing a greater

cut to emissions means that a producer is physically obliged to put less into the final energy mix, becoming a victim of its own success.

But it is worth bearing in mind that Europe’s long road to dieselisation seems poised to swing back towards petrol.

Flexibility remains a powerful attraction for the European sector as well, with post-2017 producers able to weigh the relative strengths of ethanol and sugar prices before making a decision on where to maximise their production. For decades, Brazil has been able to swing between ethanol production and sugar production according to whichever made more economic sense.

This brings us to France, the world’s biggest sugar beet power, and a country sitting at the crossroads of many of the conflicting trends unfurling

here. One of the leading lights within France’s sugar world, Tereos, has clearly signposted its intentions and where it sees opportunities.

France will be the key player post-2017, providing two thirds of any European surplus. The company has set up a commodities arm to better position itself ahead of the change, and it operates around 40% of France’s ethanol production.

Where to go from here?

France produces around 2.2 billion litres of ethanol a year, with sugar providing around 50% of that volume.

The complexion of France’s car fleet is changing.

Having peaked at 77.3% in 2008, diesel’s share has declined according to data from ACEA, the European car manufacturers’ group.

And the government has seized the moment to redress diesel’s favoured tax position at the pumps.

Along with unflattering headlines and concerns over health, diesel car sales have slumped to 63.9% in 2014, and are on course to end 2015 at around 57.5%, according to France’s car registration data body CCFA. That could be the lowest contribution from diesel in 15 years, and that is in a car market that is showing overall growth of 6% over 2015. There are definite opportunities for ethanol and sugar to grasp.

Can the change bring the flexibility the industry needs to exploit that moment? l For more information: This article was written by Tim Worledge, editorial director of Agriculture Price Reporting, at Platts McGraw Hill Financial.

Visit: www.platts.com

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biofuels biofuels in Europe Despite its EU adoption, the European ILUC legislation continues to stumble on member state laws

Implementing the unimplementable

By Colin Ley

T

en months after the European Parliament formally adopted the much-debated Indirect Land Use Change (ILUC) Directive, the policy is still dividing opinions across Europe. The main purpose of ILUC is to start the transition from conventional biofuels to biofuels that deliver substantial greenhouse gas (GHG) savings. That was the view expressed by the European Council after it also adopted the Directive in July last year.

Perhaps more crucially, for biofuels insiders at least, the Council also declared that the Directive was designed to establish a “clear legislative framework for the production of biofuels, while protecting existing investments in the sector”. The clear message from business and industry leaders today, however, is that existing investors do not feel particularly protected, certainly not at present. In addition, the political and legislative atmosphere in which the implementation of ILUC is being pursued is proving to be a deeply disturbing experience for those who have already committed significant amounts of capital to the production and processing of biofuels.

Noise from the island The loudest screams of protest are coming from the UK. This is due to the British government’s apparent desire to apply the ILUC crop cap much more severely than appears to be the case just about everywhere

The new ILUC Directive limits the share of biofuels from crops grown on agricultural land to 7%

else in Europe. The new ILUC Directive limits the share of biofuels from crops grown on agricultural land to 7%, at least it does in relation to biofuels counting towards the EU’s 2020 renewable energy targets. In the UK, however, three crop-cap scenarios are being considered – namely 5%, 3%, and 1.5% – with the lowest of those appearing to be the front-runner at present.

Although the final implementation of ILUC at member state level will not be completed until mid-2017, the prospect of what is being considered is already sending shockwaves through the industry.

“The UK government isn’t even looking at 7% as a crop-

cap option,” Clare Wenner, biofuels specialist with the UK-based Renewable Energy Association (REA), told Biofuels International. “This is because of a clause in the Directive that identifies the 7% cap as a maximum figure, allowing the UK to go under that level by as much as they wish.

“The theory behind pursuing a crop-cap of 1.5%, is that this will be sufficient to meet the requirements of UK-based bioethanol production, while the lack of any significant UK produced crop-derived biodiesel means that sector can be ignored. Such a view, of course, does kind of forget things called imports.”

In the midst of all this, following the report of the

government’s Transport Energy Task Force, REA also understands that the UK administration could no longer be viewing 2020 as the cut-off point for achieving the previously stated Renewable Transport Obligations target of sourcing 10% of transport fuels from renewables by the end of the decade. Instead, 2020 is now being viewed much more as a “staging post” on the way to 2030.

The theory goes that if the UK doesn’t hit the 2020 target then it really does not matter as the more important focus is on 2030.

“All of this is hugely damaging for the biofuels industry,” says Wenner, warning that if current

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bioethanol production in the UK is affected by such an approach, investors cannot be expected to be enthusiastic about increasing their spending to finance new forms of renewable advanced biofuels.

“One UK plant, after all, is already off-line and waiting to see whether it’s worth opening again. If something happens to that plant and others, as a result of current policy, then the investor community will say ‘hang on a minute, if this is what you do to legitimate investments, which were commissioned on the prospectus available at the time they were launched, then we will not rally round advanced biofuels in the future’.

“Frankly, in such circumstances, investors are not going to dig deeper into our pockets to fund the next wave of biofuels progress,” Wenner says.

Concerned for biodiesel The production of waste-based biodiesel, of course, appears to be free of such concerns, at least it does at first glance.

Even here, though, there is a problem, and one with a rather unfortunate ILUC conclusion.

“The UK itself has only about 150,000 tonnes of used cooking oil (UCO) available for waste-based biodiesel, leaving the rest of the sector’s feedstock requirements to be imported,” says Wenner.

“In that context, according to the numbers quoted in

the DFT’s own modelling process, the UK would need all the available UCO in Europe, and then some.”

Pointing out that the “and some” requirement would become a much bigger number if other EU member states wanted to use their own UCO supplies, as they would, she adds that the UK would be driven to source feedstock from outside of Europe, mainly in Asia. While UCO is declared a waste product in the EU as soon as it has been used once, that is not the case in Asia where UCO is largely directed towards animal feed.

“That puts us all back into a new ILUC situation,” says Wenner, pointing out that if Asia’s UCO is sent to Europe for energy production, Asia’s livestock will need to be fed on something else, probably based on palm oil.

The same point was made

by Jeremy Tomkinson, CEO of the National Non-Food Crops Centre (NNFCC) based in York, England. He argues that on a 1.5% crop cap basis the UK industry would need around 2 billion litres of waste-based biodiesel to satisfy its regulatory blending requirements.

“The most waste-based biodiesel the UK has ever blended prior to this point is 800 million litres, and that with a 20p (€0.26) per litre tax break,” he says, adding that in the future, the rest would have to come from Asia, complete with the inevitable ILUC effect. However, the

political blind eyes being turned towards UCO, he continued, were symptomatic of a confused approach to biofuels development being taken, in general, in the UK. “The government launched its biofuels policy in 2007, setting annual projections for growth and then stopped the targets from advancing any further from 2010 onwards,” he says. “Ensus, Vivergo, and British Sugar all invested huge amounts of money, based on the original targets, contributing to an industry asset commitment of at least £1 billion.

“Some of those assets are now lying idle, of course, with nobody really knowing what the policies are going to look like, going forward. The big question for investors, therefore, is can they really trust the policy makers from here on, or are they going to say one thing in 2016 and the change their mind in 2017 or 2018? This is all definitely affecting the current and future biofuels industry in the UK.” Dutch prefer ‘intelligent’ land use The general trend in the Netherlands is towards intelligent land use and intelligent biomass use, according to Daan Dijk, managing director, Biomaterials Supply Chain, with Rabobank.

Asked to comment on how the Dutch government was seeking to implement ILUC, he said that land use issues were

being addressed as part of the country’s overall approach to renewable energy, rather than as an individual issue.

“ILUC is just one of many factors that are affecting biofuels developments in the Netherlands,” he said.

“The best summary of Dutch attitudes towards the issue, therefore, is that the Netherlands is positive towards the cascaded use of biomass, including organic waste streams, and negative towards the direct use of fresh biomass for biofuels production. That’s also the position taken by Rabobank in relation to both biomass and biofuels.”

Down Germany way The approach in Germany meanwhile looks to be heading in a more satisfactory direction, with the government there preferring to shift the biofuels focus towards GHG accounting rather than the mere reporting requirements of the ILUC mechanism in the UK. As a result, the industry in Germany is moving towards a 60% GHG savings target, compared with 35% elsewhere in Europe.

For business leaders, such as Joachim Lutz, CEO of the German-headquartered CropEnergies, however, it is simply good to be able to get back to the priority task of concentrating on actually producing biofuels again, rather than merely talking about it. While still describing the ILUC discussion as having been based on “questionable

Publish and be transparent Portuguese MEP, José Inácio Faria, has challenged the European Commission to go public with an ILUC-based study of biofuels it commissioned last year, even if it does not like what the study revealed.

Faria claims that potential investors in EU biofuels have “backed off” the sector because of ILUC, projects have been dropped, and jobs which could have been delivered without ILUC will not now materialise.

biofuels international

“We now know that the claims of relationship between rising world food prices and EU renewables policies were not well based, and that the spike in commodity prices was not related to EU biofuels policy,” he says, turning his attention on the Commission’s Global Biosphere Management Model (GLOBIOM), which was designed to assess ILUC impacts of biofuels consumed in the EU. While viewing the model as a positive

move, aimed at providing policy makers with the “best available” science on ILUC and valuable in guiding the EU 2030 energy policy, he says the Commission’s refusal to now publish the findings was couched in words that were “hard to comprehend”.

“Wherever one stands on the debate on biofuels, it is simply unacceptable for Members of Parliament, NGOs, or industry to be denied access to such a key policy instrument,” he says.

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biofuels biofuels in Europe and arbitrary assumptions”, he says that generally speaking CropEnergies welcomed the end of the long discussion about ILUC and the uncertainty associated with it. That was a process, he added, that had definitely left its mark on the ethanol market in Europe.

“The ongoing discussion period was the perfect excuse for member states not to act on climate protection and not to act on air quality,” he says. “Instead, they postponed plans to expand their use of biofuels, while allowing the world to continue drilling for fossil stocks.

“Hopefully, more certainty about the legal framework [relating to ILUC] will now bring a new dynamic to the development of the European biofuels sector.”

Turning to ILUC issues that still “bother” him, however, Lutz points out that EU bioethanol is currently only using the

crops grown on 1% of the agricultural land available. In that context, not utilising the EU’s own agricultural resources and setting aside land instead would mean more soya imports, more fossil oil imports, and more GHG emissions.

As for the multiple counting of certain renewable energies, as laid down in the ILUC Directive, he argues that GHG savings which exist only on paper will actually lead to an increased consumption of fossil oil, a result which is “exactly the opposite of our goal”. Finally, in relation to UCO and the “baffling” waste issue, he suggests those who formerly used UCO were now effectively involved in a form of waste-tourism, creating deficits outside Europe in the process.

“The ILUC Directive will need to address this for the sake of benefitting real climate protection and air quality,” he says.

While member states address the process of implementing ILUC at a national level, taking the view that the Directive is very much “set in stone”, there are still many who agree with Lutz that the debate which ended 10 months ago was based on “questionable and arbitrary assumptions”. According to Elmar Baumann, managing director of Verband der Deutschen Biokraftstoffindustrie (Association of the German Biofuels Industry), the range of impact values which can be applied to ILUC are enormous.

“The indirect effects on the use of land cannot be seen or measured, therefore they must be modelled,” he says. “Depending on the model used, according to the existing scientific literature, ILUC factors can be either some 200% below or 1700% above the [likefor-like] fossil fuels value.”

To tackle the real problems of land use change, therefore, he has argued the case for two much more direct measures to be taken by the EU. “It should prohibit the use of crops from areas were rainforest has been cut down irrespective of the later use of the feedstock,” says Baumann.

“It should also expand the application of the sustainability criteria that are in place for biofuels to other users of agricultural commodities.

That way the use of palm oil from land formerly covered with rainforest would not only be forbidden for producing biofuels but also for food and chemicals.”

Ten months on from gaining European Parliamentary approval, but still more than a year away from achieving full implementation, ILUC continues to hang over the European biofuels industry and its development potential. l

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biofuels sustainability Biofuel producers in Belgian Flanders are ready to tackle the EU’s GHG reduction targets

Making of a certain sector

T

he Indirect Land Use Change (ILUC) theory has been linked to biofuels over the last few years. It generally refers to the unintended consequence of releasing more carbon emissions due to land use changes around the world than would be saved by using the bioproduct. The emissions are linked to the increased expansion of croplands for biofuel (bioethanol and biodiesel) production. In other words, agricultural land destined for biofuel crops would be replacing more traditional croplands for food, feed, and other uses, to their detriment. It is to be noted that land requirements are a key concern for environmental, social, and economic sustainability issues. Hence controlling ILUC effects is a major challenge to ensure sustainable energy crop production.

Concerns about ILUC have been raised after the EU introduced its first Renewable Energy Directive (RED) aiming at a 10% biofuel use by energy content by 2020. Critics claimed that by increasing the overall demand for crop-based biofuels, more

land would be claimed for these energy crops to the detriment of other traditional uses. As of 2010, the EU has recognised the need to take ILUC factors into account, but had not determined the most appropriate methodology.

The RED history On 17 December, 2008, the European Parliament

the European Commission to develop a methodology to include GHG emissions from ILUC by 31 December, 2010, based on the best available scientific evidence.

But it took some years to elaborate on the ILUC debate and it was only in 2015 that a new directive was accepted to amend the 2009 RED and the 1998 FQD. “The main purpose is

Once the scientific evidence on ILUC is more mature, ILUC factors have to be accounted for approved the RED as well as amendments to the Fuel Quality Directive (FQD), which included sustainability criteria for biofuels and mandated a consideration of ILUC. The RED established a 10% biofuel target by 2020. A separate FQD set an EU carbon standard, requiring a 6% reduction in greenhouse gas (GHG) intensity of EU transport fuels by 2020.

The legislation requested

to start the transition from conventional biofuels to biofuels that deliver substantial GHG savings and to establish a clear legislative framework for the production of biofuels, while protecting existing investments in the sector,” said the Council in a document released 13 July, 2015.

It is to be noted that the EU has acknowledged additional ILUC emissions, although

biofuel producers are not (yet) penalised for them. Once the scientific evidence on ILUC is more mature, ILUC factors have to be accounted for.

As a precautionary measure the EU has put a cap on the use of agricultural crops for biofuel production.

The new directive places a cap of 7% by energy content on conventional biofuels that can count towards the RED targets, allowing member states to set a lower cap. It also encourages the transition to advanced biofuels and includes a provision for double counting for advanced biofuels. It also requires reporting on GHG emission savings from the use of biofuels to be carried out by fuel suppliers.

Given the above, it is important that the directive is transposed and implemented as quickly as possible by the member states to ensure that the UE and its members meet their climate and energy targets for transport. One possibility to achieve this is to roll out national targets for the introduction of E10 petrol, as this is the only quick, sustainable, and cost-effective way to partially reach the target. It is to be noted that

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the European Commission recently cautioned that many member states were at risk of not reaching their renewable energy targets in transport.

A sustainable industry Belgium is on its way to try to reach these targets and the bioethanol sector is highly supportive in this matter.

Moreover, and looking at the installed capacities in the bioethanol sector, Belgium has enough capacity to contribute to the EU target with an overall introduction of E10 petrol.

The biofuel industry in Flanders, and by extension the Belgian one, is one of the most efficient and sustainable in the world.

Belgium has been one of the frontrunners introducing stringent sustainability criteria for biofuels used on its territory. When it concerns ILUC and its potential negative effects, it can be stated that for the Flemish/ Belgian bioethanol sector this is of no concern at all.

When looking at the production facilities, Belgian producers’ main raw materials are wheat, corn, and sugar beet, which are typically sourced within a range of roughly 300km around the plant. For sugar beets this distance is at maximum 75km. In these areas the ILUC issue does not occur as the lands where the said raw materials are sourced from have been agricultural crop land for years.

The Belgian biofuel industry consists of both bioethanol and biodiesel producers.

Bioro, Oleon, and Proviron all produce biodiesel, while Alco Bio Fuel, Biowanze, and Syral are bioethanol producers. All have stateof-the-art production facilities, which obviously need to be compliant with all necessary legislation.

But there is more. All plants are compliant with some kind of voluntary sustainability scheme, which

biofuels international

The biofuels industry in Flanders is one of the most efficient in the world

guarantees their products to be fully compliant with all sustainability criteria as required by legislation, but also by their clients.

Correcting the view However, the biggest negative impact of the whole ILUC debate remains the fact that in the early days, it has been negatively perceived in general. All biofuels have been treated the same in this debate. Not all biofuels should be perceived in the same way, though, as some might have a relatively higher impact, while others have no impact at all. As stated earlier, Belgian-produced bioethanol is expected to have little or no impact on ILUC. But together with the delay in clear legislation promoting E10 petrol, the erroneous treatment of biofuels has been an element that has held back investments, not because it was going to be taken into account in the methodology, but because it took so long to reach an agreement on the topic. Now that this is more or less cleared out, and with the potential E10 future in sight, the industry

might consider continuing its investments to remain at the pinnacle of European bioethanol production. With the possible introduction of E10 petrol, the industry could gain a larger market presence, which would also make it more visible to consumers. This might be its most interesting encounter in the years to come.

Flanders/Belgium not only has a thriving biofuel industry, it is also a frontrunner when it comes to R&D. The Ghent Bio Economy Valley, including the Bio Base Europe (BEE) pilot plant and the Port of Ghent, is a fine example of this success.

Linked to the Ghent University, the BEE plant enables the conversion of biomass into biochemicals, biomaterials, biofuels, and other bioproducts.

The plant is located next to the biofuel cluster in the Port of Ghent, where it can provide services to the biofuel plants and vice versa.

This is a major advantage, as the two entities form a fine partnership able to tackle all future issues related to biofuel production. After all, bioethanol production is part of a larger process that uses the earlier mentioned raw materials, but produces a range of several

products, all to be used in all parts of the human food, animal feed, and traditional sectors. These bioethanol facilities have become real biorefineries, producing not only bioethanol, but also protein-rich animal feed, liquid CO2, and many other products, up to and including renewable electricity.

So, what else needs to be done? Belgium has a supportive governmental climate towards biofuels, and the industry is confident that an E10 target is going to be set and rolled out in time to meet the binding target. The bioethanol industry has been well-prepared for years to cover the potential demand for E10. It can immediately deliver reliable, high-quality, and sustainable bioethanol to a potentially growing market.

The industry is fully supportive when the government and the market would be ready to introduce the E10 petrol.

Biorefineries are clearly a part of our immediate future. l

For more information: This article was written by Hendrik Lemahieu, secretary-general at Belgian Bioethanol Association. www.flanderstrade.be

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biofuels sustainability The sustainability agenda is moving forward and innovative companies are leading the way

Strength in sustainability

R

esponsibility is about values, commitments and actions. It is shown every day that innovative and responsible business can be efficient and profitable, bringing quality of life and prosperity to stakeholders.

For decades, efforts have been put in responsible forest management, traceability, sourcing and supply chains.

For our company, driving top performance is clearly linked to sustainability. Our vision is captured in one word – Biofore. It means that we integrate the bio and forest industries as a frontrunner. Versatile use of recyclable and renewable wood biomass, combined with innovation, efficiency and responsibility are at the core of Biofore. The company’s economic, social and environmental responsibility is verified by multiple

certificates and ecolabels.

The consistent work on corporate responsibility has been recognised by several external international parties.

For example, UPM has been listed as the industry leader in the Dow Jones European and World Sustainability Indices (DJSI) for the fourth year in a row. Just recently, the company was ranked on the 25th place in the Global 100 list of the most sustainable corporations, and United Nations invited the paper and pulp specialist to join a group of world’s top 50 sustainability leaders in the UN Global Compact LEAD platform.

Sustainability certification Certification of different products and supply chains is well known at UPM. However, only in biofuels is the sustainability certification

a mandatory business enabler – a biofuel, such as UPM BioVerno, can be sold in Europe as a sustainable fuel only when it is certified against obligatory EU RED (Renewable Energy Directive) sustainability requirements. Otherwise the fuel is treated like fossil fuel.

UPM produces UPM BioVerno renewable diesel fuel in its Lappeenranta Biorefinery from crude tall oil (CTO), a residue of the company´s own pulp production. Currently UPM BioVerno is certified both according to the Finnish national sustainability standard and ISCC-EU (International Sustainability and Carbon Certification) standard for biofuels. Certification proves that a supply and production chain is managed and operated according to the standard. Bringing the rules and requirements into action requires systematic processes and risk mitigation procedures.

In sustainability certification of biofuels, specific requirements are set for feedstock origin, traceability, mass balance and greenhouse gas emission emissions. These are systematically monitored in the entire supply chain from feedstock to production and the end user of a fuel.

Each feedstock supplier is evaluated and monitored carefully, and each batch or truck of feedstock or fuel is followed one by one throughout the chain. Risk mitigation tools are used in all phases. Each renewable fuel truck holds a specific Proof of Sustainability (PoS). One can read the fuel’s story in the PoS. It includes information about the properties of the specific truck content – used feedstock, feedstock origin and greenhouse gas reduction compared to its fossil reference. Each batch of a final biofuel can be traced

UPM Biofinery UPM Lappeenranta Biorefinery in Finland produces annually 120m litres of renewable diesel reducing CO2 emissions by 80% and tailpipe emissions significantly

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back to its origin, to the pulp mill where its raw material, crude tall oil, was generated.

Strict rules apply for the certification of the whole supply and production chain. Yet, passion for responsibility brings UPM deeper. In multiple areas, sustainability and responsibility verification goes far beyond the regulatory requirements.

Driving cleaner traffic Sustainability certification of biofuels is an entry ticket to the regulated European renewable transport fuel market.

However, the reasoning for the certification requirement lies mainly in environmental concerns. The main aim of biofuel policy is to mitigate climate change caused by increased CO2 emissions and other greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. Therefore rules

UPM Resin. Each batch of UPM´s final biofuel can be traced back to its origin, to the pulp mill where its raw material, crude tall oil, was generated

have been laid for the minimum requirements of greenhouse gas reduction in the life cycle.

Also requirements for the origin of the raw material have been put in place to fight unwanted land use change and protection of valuable ecosystems.

Sustainable advanced biofuels therefore significantly reduce undesired greenhouse gas emissions. Often, high quality drop-in biofuels also reduce other air emissions,

such as particulates and nitrogen oxides. This is also the case with UPM BioVerno renewable diesel.

Conversion of fossil fuel use into sustainable, advanced biofuel is a step towards more sustainable society.

Stakeholder dialogue UPM continues strong engagement in responsibility.

In order to constantly

improve, we cooperate widely with a diverse range of stakeholders, from customers to environmental and civic organisations. For instance, UPM and WWF Finland co-operate to promote the sustainability of wood-based liquid biofuels. UPM also participates in numerous research programs and projects looking at the various aspects of for example availability and sustainability of wood residues.

As a next step, UPM plans to expand its sustainability certification also on biochemical sector. We see a great potential in this growing area of interest.

Sustainability is good business – also in the long run. l For more information: This article was written by Maiju Helin, manager, sustainability and regulation, UPM Biofuels Finland Visit: www.upm.com

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biofuels profile Following in the footsteps of Italy, Brazil, and Slovakia, Finland is aiming to unveil a cellulosic ethanol plant to produce the fuel on a commercial scale

From sawdust to transport fuel

By Liz Gyekye

F

inland is no stranger to sawmills, as the Northern European country is home to a major forestry industry. St1 Biofuels, a Finnish biofuels producer and waste-toethanol technology developer, believes the country could house a significant advanced biofuels industry, which avoids the traditional downfalls of competing with farmland or driving forest clearances.

In fact, the company plans to turn sawdust into fuel at a second generation ethanol plant in the town of Kajaani in central Finland.

The proposed €40 million build is set to be the first facility in the world to use sawdust from softwood as a feedstock to produce cellulosic ethanol at a commercial scale. The plant, called Cellunolix, is owned

by North European Bio Tech (NEB), a joint venture between St1 and the retail specialist SOK Corp.

The decision to implement the project in Kajaani was based on several factors, including the town’s close proximity to a sawmill facility and a power plant on-site.

The town began in the 17th Century, fuelled by the growth of the tar industry. Today, the local economy is driven by a variety of sectors, including the sawmill, lumber, and paper industries. St1 plans to build its plant on the site of an old integrated paper mill owned by paper and pulp

specialist UPM. UPM was the main employer of the town from 1907 until 2008, when it closed the mill.

“We didn’t want to build our own power plant or be in the timber business,” says Patrick Pitkänen, head of business development and sales at St1 Biofuels. “We were looking after side products from the wood industry like we do with the food industry, where we produce ethanol from, for example, old bread.”

He adds: “From the

in recent years, the planned investment is bringing in both direct and indirect work. When completed, the Cellunolix plant will employ 15-20 people directly and around 15 people indirectly. During product development, planning, and construction, the project will generate about 200 personyears of employment.

Construction at the site has already started and Cellunolix is expected to start production by July. It is designed to produce 10

St1 plans to build its plant on the site of an old integrated paper mill owned by paper and pulp specialist UPM beginning, our thoughts were that we should not produce crops to produce fuel. So, we were always working on ways to get beyond this. All the elements in the area that we need already existed, so the capital expenditure has been small.”

Creating jobs As Kajaani has an industrial background, mainly from papermaking activities, skilled labour is readily available in the area. Taking into account the decline in the papermaking industry

million litres of cellulosic ethanol per year using waste from an adjacent sawmill, but it has the potential to be scaled up to annual output of 50 to 100 million litres.

But how does the process actually work? Pitkänen says: “First, we have to do pre-treatment. We are using thermochemical pre-treatment to crack the sawdust tractor cellulose away from the lignin. It’s a similar technology that they have in the pulp industry and we call it steam explosion. Subsequently, we then send the material for enzymatic hydrolysis to

convert cellulose to sugars for fermentation. After that, we send the material for distillation and dehydration.

“We realised that it is difficult to get large volumes of waste from the food industry and the cellulosic ethanol is the way forward. We also realised in Finland that sawdust is a natural source we can use as a feedstock for cellulosic ethanol production.

It was quite a natural product for us to target.”

Pitkänen says that the sawdust is currently going to the sawmill to be used in the power plant, which produces electricity and heat for district heating at the site. It is common in Finland to use sawdust for energy production. “The sawdust is quite wet and it’s more effective to produce ethanol from it,” he says.

Opportunities also exist for the byproducts that come out from the production process.

“Lignin is one important side product. Vinesee – leftover sugars not fermented during the ethanol process – is also a side product. Initially, this will be used as a boiler fuel. However, we are looking at other options for them,” Pitkänen explains.

Ethanol produced from waste and residue is almost carbon-neutral. It is used to produce high-blend ethanol fuel for flex-fuel vehicles and also as a bio-component in petrol. The plant will produce a “90% ethanol, water mixture”.

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The material will then be transported to St1’s Hamina site, which is based near Helsinki, where the firm has a dehydration plant. Pitkänen says: “Here, we remove the rest of the water and then we have 100% ethanol. We use E10 and E85. Some of our ethanol is being used as ED95 in Scania trucks and buses in Finland.”

The key regulation to encourage the development of biofuels market is the Renewable Energy Sources (RES) Directive 2009/28/WC, which mandates levels of renewable energy use within the EU. It requires the EU to fulfil at least 20% of its total energy needs with renewables by 2020 – to be achieved through the attainment of individual national targets.

All EU countries must also ensure that at least 10% of their transport fuels come from renewable sources by 2020. The target for Finland is 20% by 2020.

The Directive specifies national renewable energy

‘The Finnish goverment has set high targets for renewable energy in transport’ Patrick Pitkänen targets for each country, taking into account its starting point and overall potential for renewables. These targets range from a low of 10% in Malta to a high of 38% in Finland. Sweden has the highest 2020 target of 49%.

Pitkänen says: “The Finnish government has set high targets for renewable energy in transport. When setting the targets, the government thought ‘we have wood as a natural resource and we can set a higher target’.

“In order for companies to invest in R&D and production, the government is putting some money in the basket and mitigating the risk this way. We are actually doing what the government wants.”

The EU’s Indirect Land Use Change (ILUC) ruling has also promoted second generation biofuels over first generation ones, giving a boost to the Cellunolix’s project.

Tackling challenges Industry challenges primarily centre on the area of clear and stable support policies and financing instruments.

Yet, Finland has a clear biofuels policy in place, which has provided stability to companies. St1 has also faced its own multiple challenges when building Cellunolix.

“Initially, we had to do a lot of work finding the site and then we had to locate the feedstock. We also had to

spend some time obtaining permits for the site – this was a new process for authorities too,” says Pitkänen.

“We built a pilot plant to test all the processes and components of the facility.

We had a lot of testing by ourselves and also by our equipment suppliers and we have solved all the issues now. We implemented the final design and ordered all the equipment.”

St1 hopes that Cellunolix’s launch will go to plan this summer, but it acknowledges there will be hiccups along the way, which it says will be manageable. Not one to sit back, the company is already looking for locations for its next plant.

“We are looking in Finland, Sweden and Norway. We are speaking five-to-tenfold bigger than what we plan to make at Kajaani. Later we can license this technology to all countries where softwood is largely produced, including Central Europe, US, and Canada,” Pitkänen concludes. l

St1 says it will build the first facility in the world to use sawdust from softwood as a feedstock to produce cellulosic ethanol at a commercial scale in the Finnish town of Kajaani, pictured here

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An agri company in Paraguay is developing a new feedstock for biofuel production

Attack of the clones

By Colin Ley

T

he development of an extensive hydrotreated vegetable oil (HVO) feedstock production enterprise in Paraguay, funded by French, Dutch, and UK investors, reached a significant milestone in February with the completion of a propagation site and greenhouse infrastructure for Pongamia, the nitrogen-fixing tree on which the work is based.

“Traditionally grown in India and Australia, Pongamia is a rich source of high quality oil and valuable animal feed,” says Marcel van Heesewijk, founder and CEO of Investancia Holding, the company behind the development. “We’re confident that Pongamia will become one of the best HVO feedstocks in the world over the next five years and the completion of a local tree propagation site is a hugely important step for the development in Paraguay.”

Located in the country’s vast Chaco region, Investancia’s HVO production vision is already well into its third year.

The work to date has been deliberately kept under wraps until now to enable the theory and potential of Pongamia to be professionally nurtured through its initial stages.

“We wanted to test before talking, proving that we can grow Pongamia commercially before we started to tell everyone about it,” said van Heesewijk, adding that Investancia was now ready to also support third party investors.

“HVO is the coming market in terms of global biofuels, a fact which is creating an enormous need for feedstock.

biofuels international

annual production of 70,000 trees. We plan to build five greenhouses before the end of this year, which will lift our 2017 output to 350,000 trees.

There is already a demand for 2.8 million tonnes of HVO feedstock from the sector’s existing refineries, however, so our planned scale of operation is entirely justified.”

Finding land

Marcel van Heesewijk assessing first-year Pongamia tree growth in the plantation at Santa Rosanna

Santa Rosanna’s first greenhouse – under construction

Based on our pre-launch research, work with our plant breeding partners – TerViva in the US and Bioenergy Plantations in Australia – and our own farming experience in Paraguay, we firmly believe that Pongamia oil has a very big part of the play in the future of the HVO sector.

While saying that in the past wasn’t relevant, it is now.”

The company’s Santa Rosanna 1,000ha estate, based directly on the Rio

Paraguay bordering Brazil, is currently being used for tree propagation. Clones will be taken from these trees for the first three years of their life, after which their fruit will be harvested for HVO and animal feed.

“This is where the new greenhouse infrastructure fits in,” said van Heesewijk. “Each individual greenhouse has a production capacity of 18,000 clones every three months, which translates into the

In addition to its own output, Investancia is now talking to companies, private equity groups, green funds, and family offices about land lease or purchases to grow, process, and sell Pongamia oil from Paraguay. Discussions have already taken place with several groups that already own or lease farmland in South America and are in tune with the benefits and requirements of the area. Depending how many of these groups decide to get involved in the first wave of HVO production, Investanica will also be opening the project to other investors on a global basis.

“In addition to talking to possible production partners, we are also working with several potential HVO end users,” said van Heesewijk.

“In that context, we’ve already hosted a visit to Santa Rosanna by representatives of a major international airline, who are interested in future jet biofuel options and are talking to senior executives attached to a major oil company and a leading car manufacturer.

“Having been patient in not talking about our work for the past three years, it’s exciting to now be able to explain what we’re doing and what we’re aiming to achieve.” l

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biofuels regulations US Congress has extended the federal biodiesel tax credits, but the scheme does not satisfy everyone

Giving credit where it’s due

By Ilari Kauppila

T

he US Congress passed in last December a tax extenders package to retroactively extend a blenders’ tax credit for biodiesel and a producers’ credit for cellulosic biofuels from the beginning of 2015 through 2016. The $1 per gallon biodiesel and the $1.01 per gallon cellulosic biofuel credits were longawaited in the industry, which has been struggling with uncertain legislation.

The biodiesel tax credits have a history of being neglected by the US federal government. The credit scheme has been allowed to expire as many as four times in the past six years.

The continuous back-andforth with the legislation has seriously hindered long-term production planning within the industry and undermined both investor confidence and the willingness of new investors to pump money into the ailing market. With the tax credits finally in place (at least for the time being), together with the finalised Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS) rules, biodiesel and cellulosic biofuel producers can for the first time in a long while look to the future with hope.

Praise left and right Practically all major US biofuel producers expressed some degree of satisfaction with the ruling. The Renewable Energy Group (REG)’s

president and CEO Daniel J. Oh thanked in a statement the company’s “bi-partisan congressional champions” Senators Charles Grassley and Maria Cantwell for their “constant and unwavering” commitment to the industry.

“With the President’s signature, this worthwhile incentive, combined with higher RFS biomass-based diesel volumes, will reinforce our company’s continuing growth by encouraging higher blends and usage of advanced biofuels throughout North America. It provides multiple benefits through enhancing our environment, energy and food security, and local economies,” Oh said.

The Iowa Renewable Fuels Association (IRFA), representing the industry in the US’ largest biofuel producer state, joined REG in praising Grassley’s “herculean” efforts in a statement.

“We applaud Congress for providing certainty to the biodiesel community through the two-year extension of the biodiesel tax credit,” said IRFA executive director Monte Shaw. “[It] is key because many biodiesel producers, including some in Iowa, had to essentially bet their company’s future in hopes the tax credit would return retroactively. Looking forward, having the tax credit in place for 2016 will provide a positive assurance to the biodiesel community that will support jobs and economic

activity,” he continued.

The American Soybean Association (ASA) called the tax credit “critical to the US biodiesel industry’s competitiveness and growth”.

“Biomass-based diesel is the only domestically produced advanced biofuel that is currently commercially available in the US, and it provides significant economic, energy security, environmental, and health benefits,” ASA spokesman Tom Hance told Crop Protection News.

“The biodiesel tax incentive has encouraged significant investment to expand the domestic biodiesel industry and help it become price competitive with petroleum diesel.”

Blenders vs. producers Yet all is still not well in the kingdom. Although the US industry no doubt appreciates the enhanced long-term certainty, it has balked against the fact that – unlike the cellulosic biofuel producers’ credit – the biodiesel tax credit is a blenders’ credit.

Whereas the cellulosic credit is given to each gallon of biofuel produced in the US, biodiesel produced overseas that is blended with petroleum diesel in the US qualifies for the $1 per gallon tax credit.

Biodiesel producers argue that the blenders’ credit allows US federal incentives to leak outside the country and give foreign producers an unfair competitive edge.

The crowd picketing for Congress to turn the biodiesel credit into a producers’ credit has been headed by the National Biodiesel Board (NBB), the US national biodiesel trade association.

While the NBB welcomed the extended credit, it fears that its effects will not reach their full potential. Anne Steckel, VP of federal affairs at NBB, said in a statement that the tax incentives’ impact would be muted by allowing foreign biodiesel to qualify for it.

“This not only costs taxpayers more money but it paves the way for foreign fuels that already receive incentives in their home countries to undercut US production. We have yet to hear any member of Congress articulate why US tax dollars should be used to support foreign production,” Steckel said.

According to the NBB, the blenders’ credit has caused imports to rise sharply in recent years. In 2012, the US imported fewer than 100 million gallons of biodiesel, while in 2015 imports rose to 670 million gallons. This marks a 25% jump year on year from the 510 million gallons in 2014. The US Energy Information Agency has estimated that the import volume will grow to more than 700 million gallons in 2016.

“While the overall numbers are positive, we are increasingly seeing subsidised, predatory imports undercutting US production – in part by taking advantage of

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The US Congress building at night

US policies aimed at building up the domestic industry,” NBB’s CEO Joe Jobe said.

“We welcome competition but US companies can’t fairly compete against foreign companies that are doubledipping on overseas and US incentives while not letting US producers compete in their domestic markets,” he added.

The REG, IRFA, and ASA have each also stated their intent on lobbying Congress to make the biodiesel credit a producers’ credit.

But on the other end of the opinion spectrum is the industry advocacy group Advanced Biofuels Association (ABFA). The association says the blender’s credit will continue to protect “all the small producers, users of biodiesel and renewable diesel, and the distributors who invest in the blending equipment and sell all the fuel in the US”.

It also reminds those supporting the producers’ credit that the tax incentive is intended to be an energy

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credit and not a “farm bill”.

In a letter sent to the House of Representatives last October before the tax credits’ reinstatement, ABFA – along with several petroleum and retail marketing groups - said converting the credit to a producers’ one would “fail to capture the global market essence of fuels”. “[The producers’ credit] increases profits for a limited number of producers while reducing the overall availability of fuels. Any limits in the supply chain are likely to increase costs for consumers. This amendment also places an unnecessary burden on fuel retailers who have incurred significant costs to purchase and maintain the equipment to dispense blended fuels, another cost likely to be passed on to consumers,” ABFA said in the letter.

What the future holds It seems that despite the tax credits and the finalised RFS,

the US biofuels industry is still not in the clear. Renewable Identification Number (RIN) values have been on a steady downward slope since the credit reinstatement, despite a slight peak in early January.

Based on PFL data, D4 (biodiesel) RINs stagnated between high $0.60s and low $0.70s per credit at the end of January. D6 (ethanol) RINs sank from around $0.70 in late December to between $0.63 and $0.635 at the end of January, while D6 (advanced biofuel) RINs traded around the area of $0.68-$0.69.

But the market is expected to see some improvement in the coming months.

On the other hand, production remains strong.

According to the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), biodiesel volumes reached 1.814 billion gallons in late January, breaking the previous record of 1.79 billion gallons from 2013.

The NBB also reported that

US biodiesel producers have more than 3 billion gallons of standing production capacity registered with the EPA. The coming months will give us a better understanding of the biodiesel tax credits’ effect on the industry, and whether the NBB’s warning of foreign competition gaining an edge on the market will come true.

Outside of Congress, while producers wrestle with the blender/producer credit reform, presidential candidate Ted Cruz, known for his opposition to the RFS and government subsidies to the biofuel industry, took the Iowa Caucus by surprise.

Not only did he beat the Republican Party front runner Donald Trump, he did so in Iowa, where the locally important ethanol industry was expected to turn the fates against him. Biofuel producers should keep a close eye on the presidential race, as the future of the recent positive changes to US biofuels policy may depend on it. l

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Entertainers & Speakers on the Power of Partnership, Innovation, Collaboration and Execution Take two comedians with chainsaws, throw in audience participation, and what do you get? ILTA’s 2016 keynote luncheon speakers! See how John Wee and Owen Morse, also known as The Passing Zone, combine their talents to effectively demonstrate how their individual safety and success are directly related to how well they work together.

36TH ANNUAL

INTERNAT I O N A L OPER AT I N G CON F E R E NC E & TR AD E S HOW HO U STON, TE XAS

I N T E R N AT I O N A L LIQUID TERMINALS A S S O C I AT I O N

GEORGE R. BROWN CONVENTION CENTER

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Chinese officials have begun an investigation after complaints of unfair and damaging US DDGs export practices

No dumping on China

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hina’s Ministry of Commerce (MoC) has launched anti-dumping and countervailing duties investigations on US dried distillers grains with solubles (DDGS) imports. The move, announced mid-January, comes after complaints from Chinese producers that DDGS from the US were sold at prices “below normal value”, which hurts domestic industry. The MoC received in November 2015 an official petition from the China Alcoholic Drinks Association (CADA), which represents Chinese ethanol producers, to initiate the investigation.

CADA argues in its petition that the increased amount of DDGS imports from the US pushed down the prices of domestic Chinese industry, resulting in large surplus stocks and financial damages. The launch of the countervailing, or anti-subsidy, duties investigation was brought on by further CADA claims of US DDGS exports being supported by the US government by up to 42 subsidy schemes, which enabled them to be exported at artificially low prices and may violate World Trade Organisation regulations.

China is the largest buyer in the world of DDGS, a highprotein by-product of ethanol production that is often used to replace components fit for human consumption in animal feed. The Asian economic giant is almost entirely dependent on foreign exports to feed its DDGS needs, with most of its supply sourced from the US, the world’s top exporter of the grain product.

In the first eleven months of 2015, China imported nearly 6.5 million tonnes of DDGS valued at $1.89 billion

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(€1.73bn), up by more than 14% from the same period year on year. But imports slowed and DDGS prices dropped after the MoC’s announcement in December 2015 that it had formally accepted the CADA petition to begin the investigation. Under Chinese law, the MoC must decide within 60 days whether or not it will act after accepting an investigation request.

“After perusal, the ministry is satisfied that the petition contains sufficient evidence to initiate an antidumping and countervailing duty investigation, as stipulated by the relevant regulations,” the MoC said.

China has performed antidumping investigations of US DDGS imports once earlier in 2010. This probe was dropped after 18 months in mid-2012 after the three Chinese ethanol producers who initiated the investigation withdrew their request. In 2014, China again limited DDGS imports after the country’s government banned all corn and byproducts from a certain

genetically modified strain.

The constraints were again dropped in December 2014.

According to the MoC, the current investigation should last no longer than a year under “normal conditions”, but it could be extended to one and half years should “special circumstances” arise.

Negative effects The Chinese measure was met with disappointment by the US Grains Council (USGC), which represents the interests of US farmers and grains exporters worldwide. The organisations president and CEO Tom Sleight said USGC would still fully cooperate with Chinese authorities to resolve the issue.

“We believe the allegations by the Chinese petitioners are unwarranted and unhelpful.

They could have negative effects on US ethanol and DDGS producers, as well as on Chinese consumers, potentially over a period of many years,” Sleight said in a statement.

“We are also confident that our trading practices for

DDGS, ethanol, and all coarse grains and related products are fair throughout the world. We stand ready to cooperate fully with these investigations and will be working closely with our members to coordinate the US industry response.”

He reiterated that the USGC will work throughout the industry to respond to the investigations while simultaneously remaining engaged in its long-time work in China. There is a 20-day period following initiation of the cases in which US companies that want to maintain access to the Chinese market must register to indicate their cooperation with the investigation.

The USGC, Growth Energy, and the Renewable Fuels Association, together with state corn ethanol organisations, are encouraging all companies that produce or merchandise DDGS to register through the coordinated process.

The USGC has worked in China since 1981 to find solutions to the challenges of food security through development and trade. These programmes are still ongoing, focusing on trade servicing, information sharing, livestock development, and air quality.

“There have been measureable positive effects of this work for the Chinese feed and livestock industries and Chinese consumers,” said Slight.

“We and our members will work vigorously in the coming months to demonstrate that the allegations being investigated by MoC are false, even while we continue to stand ready to expand our cooperation with China on agricultural issues of mutual benefit,” he concluded. l

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biofuels algae A review of the role of a bench-top photobioreactor in the advancement of algal technology and production for commercial applications

Microalgae in industry

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icroalgae, single-celled photosynthetic organisms, have great potential as a renewable source for a tremendous range of commercial products, such as biofuels, foods and feed (human and animal), nutraceuticals and health foods, industrial chemicals, and even pharmaceuticals. In addition, the ability of algae to grow across a wide-range of environmental conditions, coupled with a relatively short harvesting period (compared to traditional crops such as corn, sugar cane, and grasses) and smaller acreage requirement for equivalent yield, makes it an ideal crop for commercial production in either out-door raceways or self-contained production bioreactors.

However, while there are over 70,000 known species of algae, some strains are better than others for different commercial applications.

Further, genetically engineered strains typically require unique culture conditions and containment. Therefore, each potential production strain must be optimised for both by-product yield and culture growth prior to production scale implementation in order to maximise return on investment and reduce CAPEX. The question, then, becomes whether optimising yield at benchscale accurately predicts production scale yield?

It is worth reviewing several commercially relevant applications of algae cultivation and the use of

the Phenometrics PBR101 photobioreactor to optimise cultivation conditions at bench scale that are predictive of large-scale yield in raceways or enclosed photobioreactors.

Biofuel research, while significant to the future of global energy supplies, is not currently economically feasible with algae-based biofuels (with current technologies): the cost of an algae-based fuel is about $8.00 (€ 7.19) per gallon as opposed to only $2-3 per gallon for competing fossil fuels. However, platforms with the ability to produce co-products are important in shifting favorably the economics. For example,

algae for biofuels research and production.

Biofuel Perhaps the greatest investment in the potential of algae has been in the development of biofuels.

Certain strains of algae have been found to produce large amounts of lipids, which can be extracted and converted to fuels. Biodiesel is based on long-chain monoalkyl (methyl, ethyl, or propyl) esters. These fatty acid esters are formed by reacting an alcohol with the extracted lipids. Thus, much research has been done to identify

While there are more than 70,000 known species of algae, some strains are better than others many co-products, such as nutraceuticals and foods, can be co-produced with biofuels and, additionally, use wastewater as a nutrient and/ or carbon source for the algae.

These non-fuel co-products can be sold profitably, thus off-setting the losses from the biofuel product. Thus, by employing this co-product strategy, the overall production can be economically feasible.

There are many highly profitable co-products that come directly from biofuels research, including several reviewed in this paper, which demonstrate the tremendous range of capabilities of

strains that have the highest lipid content and, additionally, to improve lipid production within individual strains.

One approach to improving lipid yield was to study the effect of light and temperature variations on the growth and physiology of the biofuel candidate marine microalgal species Nannochloropsis oculata. An array of interconnected PBR101 photobioreactors – integrated with metabolic sensors – was used to vary light and temperature conditions according to sinusoidal day/ night, light/dark, and heating/ cooling cycles. The specific

experiments were performed with algal cultures maintained at a constant 20°C versus a 15-25°C diel temperature cycle, where light intensity also followed a diel cycle.

While no differences in algal growth were found, it was determined that the changes in environmental conditions had a great effect on the metabolic processes. The combination of strong light and high temperature in the second set of experiments caused greater damage to this second photosystem. In addition, overnight metabolism was also found to perform differently, which was thought to be due to the effect of temperature on respiration.

As a result of these experiments, the effectiveness of deploying Nannochloropsis oculata in similar field conditions for commercial biofuel production could be predicted. Moreover, this study showed that the PBR101, with high-level environmental control features combined with high-resolution monitoring of algal growth and physiology, can be used to answer many unresolved questions in algal biofuel production.

In a different (but related) study, the first in-depth analysis of CO2 limitation on the biomass productivity of Nannochloropsis oculata was performed using PBR101 photobioreactors. Net photosynthesis decreased by 60% from 125 to 50μmolO2L1 -1 h over a 12h light cycle as a direct result of carbon limitation. Continuous dissolved O2 and pH measurements were used to develop a

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detailed diurnal mechanism for the interaction between photosynthesis, gas exchange, and carbonate chemistry in the PBR101 photobioreactor.

Gas exchange determined the degree of carbon limitation experienced by the algae. Carbon limitation was confirmed by delivering more CO2, which increased net photosynthesis back to its steady-state maximum.

Yet another study examined the induction of oil accumulation in algae for biofuel production. This effect is often achieved by nitrogen starvation. However, withholding nitrogen also often reduces total biomass yield, which reduces crop yield. In this report, it was demonstrated using the PBR101 photobioreactor that Chlorella sorokiniana will not only accumulate substantial quantities of neutral lipids when grown in the absence of nitrogen, but will also exhibit unimpeded growth rates for up to two weeks, a finding with significant commercial ramifications.

Animal feed A study was performed to determine if algae could convert N and P into animal feed in smaller land acreage than crops such as corn4. Algae has a much shorter yield-cycle than corn, and thus significantly reduces time-to-harvest and improves annual yield (i.e. multiple harvests in a single year rather than just one) while also reducing costs. At the same time, this study sought to maximise the nutritional value of algae produced for animal feed.

An array of PBR101s was programmed to simulate solar radiation and day length.

Pond cultures were isolated and pH was controlled by the addition of CO2. A variety of pure strains were isolated in the lab from the pond cultures and determined to be appropriate for pond inoculation based on several requirements, including maximisation of the

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nutritional value of algae for animal feed, optimisation of pathogen inactivation methods, and quantification and control of any toxic cyanobacteria.

Nutraceuticals and health foods A wide variety of algal strains have been identified as important sources of nutraceuticals, or dietary nutrients and supplements. For example, it is now common to find Spirulina, as well as other strains, in nutritional drinks and foods. A recent study found that microalgae lipids could serve as a source of eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) or omega-3 as an alternative to traditional fish oils. This, and other research of its kind, is important for the increasingly large population of consumers who are strict vegetarians and will not accept fish as a source of nutrients or supplements.

However, the yield of EPA and lipid extracted from microalgae varies with different growth conditions. Therefore, for commercial feasibility, the importance of optimising EPA production is critical. The effects of temperature, light intensity, and nitrate level on cell growth, lipid productivity, and omega-6 (arachidonic acid (ARA))/omega-3 (EPA) ratio of Porphyridium cruentum, one of the most promising oil-rich species of microalgae, were investigated.

The study demonstrated that temperature, illumination, nitrogen level, and CO2 levels (studied using the PBR101 photobioreactor) significantly impacted cell growth, lipid production, and fatty acid compositions of P. cruentum.

The results demonstrated that decreased temperature and enhanced light intensity resulted in higher lipid content and lipid production, but also reduced biomass.

potentially serve as a source for both carbon (essential nutrient) and water for microalgal production. The effluent of an anaerobic internal circulation (IC) reactor, used to treat the waste of a biotechnology production facility, was chosen as the cultivation medium for Chlorella sorokiniana in batch and continuous cultures using the PBR101 photobioreactor6. The aim was to determine the relationship between the rate of waste (algae nutrients) removal and biomass production at varying dilution rates.

Batch culture using undiluted wastewater showed biomass productivity of 1.33g/L-1day-1, while removing over 99% of the ammonia and phosphate from the wastewater. Decelerationstat (D-stat) experiments performed at both high and low light intensities

of 2100 and 200 (Îźmol photon m-2s-1) established the optimal dilution rates to reach volumetric productivity of 5.87 and 1.67g/L-1day-1 respectively.

The corresponding removal rates of nitrogen were 238 and 93mg/L-1day-1 and 40 and 19mg/L-1day-1 for phosphorous. The yield at low light intensity was as high as had been observed in any previous report, indicating that the waste stream allowed the algae to grow at its full potential.

Model organism for biofuel, chemicals, and pharmaceuticals Cyanobacteria are an excellent model for the study of photosynthesis in the laboratory. However, only a small percentage of cyanobacterial genes and intergenic regions have been

Industrial wastewater cleanup Industrial wastewaters can

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biofuels algae

experimentally evaluated for their impact on fitness and survival. A recent investigation determined the complete set of essential genomic regions necessary for survival in a cyanobacterium.

Synechococcus elongatus PCC 7942 is a model organism for studying photosynthesis and the circadian clock, and is also being developed for the production of fuel, industrial chemicals, and pharmaceuticals. It is beneficial to identify a comprehensive set of genes and intergenic regions that impact fitness in S. elongatus. A pooled library of about 250,000 transposon mutants was created and sequencing was used to identify the insertion locations.

For testing the library, growth under standard laboratory conditions was accomplished by cultures grown in four conditions: • On solid BG-11 kanamycin under 116μmol photons·m-2·s-1 • In liquid BG-11 kanamycin under 199μmol photons·m-2·s-1 • In liquid BG-11 kanamycin under 60μmol photons·m-2·s-1 • In a Phenometrics PBR101 Photobioreactor maintained at a constant OD750 of 0.1 under 500μmol photons·m-2·s-1 All liquid cultures were collected for sequencing after six to eight generations. By analysing the distribution and survival of these mutants, 718 of the organism’s 2,723 genes were identified as essential for survival under

laboratory conditions. In addition to improving our fundamental understanding of Cyanobacteria, from a commercial perspective this research more broadly defines the essential genes and intergenic regions that must be maintained in any genetically engineered strains designed for optimised commercial production.

Biofuel, fish and animal Feeds, and fertiliser The National Association for Advanced Biofuels and Bioproducts (NAABB) had in 2013 benchmarked five of their strains in outdoor facilities8.

José Olivares, founder of the original NAABB threeyear Department Of Energybacked consortium, says that the Phenometrics PBR101 photobioreactor was valuable in the cultivation research.

“It allowed us to mimic the environment of an algal pond throughout different temperatures, different nutrient conditions, different sunlight conditions – within a small system that can be multiplexed in the laboratory so that we didn’t have to have, say, 30 ponds in a very large field to do a particular set of experiments.

In fact, Los Alamos (National Laboratories) has acquired 24 of these photobioreactors and is utilising them quite heavily,” Olivares explains.

Further, he adds: “From our harvesting process we did a separation primarily through hexane and wet extraction with one of our partners and the lipid-extracted algae (LEA) then went into a number of development activities. One of them was to take that LEA and understand its value as feed for a number of different types of animals, including ruminants, pigs, fish, and shrimp.”

Biofuel research, while significant to the future of global energy supplies, is not currently economically feasible with algae-based biofuels These were put into cultivation in an outdoor environment, studied for their productivity over time, and produced an understanding of how they develop in those environments as compared to the laboratory.

The strains were taken through the entire, fully-integrated process including cultivation, harvesting, extraction, conversion of the lipids into fuels (both diesel and other hydrocarbons), and the lipidextracted algae processed into additional fuel components and/or animal feed products.

The research team found that the value of LEA as a feed supplement for ruminants could add up to $145 (appr. €129) of value per tonne to the process. The value is in direct comparison to soyabean meal, which is the normal protein supplement added to cattle feed. In aquaculture that value seems to be much higher, up another $90.7 a tonne added into the process.

“At the same time we looked at the utilisation of lipidextracted algae as direct soil amendment, as a fertiliser. We

found that this application is of interest, but has a very low value of around $27.2 a tonne.”

Bench-scale prediction of production yields In recent years, the industry has widely embraced the use of bench-top bioreactors, often less than 1l in scale, to accurately predict the required growing conditions of algae in much larger systems, such as raceways and industrialscale bioreactors, often tens of thousands of litres or larger. An experiment was performed to directly compare the productivity of a realworld large scale bioreactor (a raceway pond) to that predicted from preliminary bench-scale yields using the Phenometrics PBR101 photo bioreactor9.

The objective was to establish the correlation between biomass productivity in PBR101 systems and AA outdoor 1-acre growth raceway ponds.

Environmental data (temperature and PAR) recorded at a raceway pilot production facility was programmed into an array of PBR101s and used to compare yields in the two systems. The average daily aerial productivity was calculated. Conditions that were duplicated in the PBR101 included temperature, photosynthetically active radiation (PAR), pH, and carbon delivery. Conditions that were not duplicated in the PBR101 included humidity, evaporation rate, wind, solar irradiance (spectrum/light quality), interaction with foreign micro-organisms such as grazers and algae, and rainfall.

The PBR101 was proven to accurately predict raceway production to within 10%.

Similar accuracy in upscale yield predictions have been demonstrated by other PBR101 users. l For more information:

This article was written by CEO M.G. Chaparian and VP of sales and marketing T.J. Alavosus of Phenometrics. Visit: www.phenometricsinc.com

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Navy moo-ving forwards Cow fat is helping the US Navy’s Great Green Fleet to protect the motherland In the navy, they say, you can sail the seven seas. It might not get to tick all seven off the list on its way, but the US Navy’s Carrier Strike Group 3 certainly has ways to go after beginning its latest deployment mid-January.

On the surface, there was nothing special about the fleet’s departure from the port of San Diego, led by the super heavy Nimitz-class aircraft carrier USS John C. Stennis.

But deep under the decks, in the ships’ fuel systems, it’s a different story. While the flagship carrier is nuclearpowered, three others of the strike group’s seven ships will use a biodiesel blend to propel them forwards.

The cruiser Mobile Bay and destroyers Stockdale and William P. Lawrence run on a fuel mix consisting of 10% waste beef fat-based biodiesel and 90% petroleum.

While this may not sound like much, the Carrier Strike Group 3 has earned the modest nickname of the Great Green Fleet. It’s subtle, but the Navy seems proud of its project.

“The Great Green Fleet highlights how the Navy and Marine Corps are transforming our energy use to increase our combat capability, operational flexibility, and resiliency so that we can go farther, stay longer, and deliver more firepower,” said Navy spokesman Lt. Chika Onyekanne.

The use of biofuels is not a spur-of-the-moment decision for the Navy, which has been leading the way in weaning the US armed forces off fossil fuels for several year.

The biofuels initiative, named after the Great White Fleet set up by President Theodore Roosevelt to circumnavigate the globe, was first announced in 2009 when the then-new Navy Secretary Ray Mabus

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assumed his position.

Mabus set an ambitious goal of supplying at least half of the Navy’s energy needs through alternative sources by 2020. For a unit of the single largest energy consumer in the world, the US Defence Department, this was a tall order. But behind it were good reasons, apart from a concern for the environment. Testifying at a Senate hearing in 2012, Mabus said diversifying the fuel stock would aid the Navy strategically.

“We are at risk because much of the fuel we use comes from volatile regions of the world. We would never buy aircraft or ships from many of the places that supply us oil because some are unstable and some do not necessarily have our best interests at heart,” Mabus told the senators.

The Navy’s 78 million gallon biofuel supply for the Great Green Fleet project was generated from cattle fat, sourced from the US Midwest, and processed into biodiesel by Paramount, California-based AltAir Fuels. With the current low oil and high feedstock prices giving a pounding to the biofuel industry, the Navy’s $200 million (appr. €183m) investment gave it a much needed facelift for other investors.

“It was an enormous boost on the industry. All the venture [capital] guys saw that the US military is an enormous customer and may even pay a premium,” said Stephen Mayfield, director of the California Center for Algae Biotechnology at University of California in San Diego and a co-founder of Sapphire Energy. “[With oil] at $30 per barrel, the biggest problem is no more investment from the business community. These guys are not going to put another penny into it, but if you talk to them, they are closely watching all

US Navy unveils a warship powered by beef fat

the advances that are being made,” Mayfield said.

Biodiesel is still more expensive than petroleum diesel, and as such it marks a financial liability. But the confidence the Navy is showing in the project might give the industry the boost it sorely needs. In 2016, the Navy expects to purchase 170 million gallons of biofuel to fuel not only its ships, but also airplanes and other equipment.

High-ranking officials are determined to make bio-fuelled deployments not a fleeting fad but the new status quo.

“Our ships and our aircraft could sail, could steam, could fly on blends of normal aviation fuel or marine diesel and biofuels. What we’re doing now is making that part of the new normal,” Secretary Mabus said in a video posted on Navy social media channels.

Yet the Great Green Fleet is not without its critics.

Senators have claimed that the money used to purchase biofuels would be better spent in constructing new ships, particularly as the Navy’s budget is already being cut. A Congressional Research Service report also notes that as the battleships are still fuelled by 90% petroleum diesel, it wasn’t clear whether “developing a domestic advanced biofuels industry would do much in practical terms to diversify the Navy’s fuel sources.”

Despite the criticism, Mabus remains confident that switching to biofuels makes good fiscal sense. Each time the oil price goes up by a dollar adds £30 million to the Navy’s fuel costs, and Mabus argues biofuels could help absorb this shock. He’s also confident investment in biofuels will encourage new innovations making green fuels even cheaper. l

Top Tweets A selection of fascinating tidbits heard through our Twitter feed! (@biofuelsmag) Lacey Rose Dixon @LaceyRoseDixon Hard work, dedication, an appreciation for rural America -USDA Sec. Vilsack is a champion for ethanol’s significance. #RFANEC #powerbypeople EuropaBio @EuropaBio “#biotech, knowledge & innovation must be available, accessible & applicable to family farmers” @grazianodasilva Renewable Fuels ‫@‏‬EthanolRFA New econ data validates #ethanol impact; workforce nearly 86k strong! #RFANEC @EthanolConf

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biofuels biodiesel from waste A Portuguese waste-to-oil producer has developed a method for diverting waste oils from landfills

Extracting oils from ‘ugly’ wastes

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any people have heard of the expression “where there is muck, there is brass”. Yet, not many would have heard the saying “where there is muck, there is oil”.

The resource management industry in Portugal is due to get used to this expression, especially after recently launching Portugal’s first waste-to-oil facility in Santa Maria da Feira, based in the northwest of the country. Waste-to-energy technologies and solutions company ENC Energy unveiled the demonstration facility in January 2015.

The plant is extracting oils from wastes like greases (from grease traps), sludge from domestic wastewater treatment plants (brown grease), sewer fat, flotation fats, agro and food industries sludge, and other liquid waste with some amount of vegetable or animal oil or fat. The extracted oil is used as a raw material for biodiesel production.

One of the advantages of the project is the increase in new sustainable waste feedstock for the production of biodiesel. The diesel produced from these materials is considered an advanced biofuel due to the feedstock origin. Simultaneously, using waste oils provides an environmentally-friendly solution to treating these types of wastes, whose final disposal site is not always ecologically acceptable.

An important fact, when

Collecting an oil sample for testing

considering that more than 50% of municipal waste was landfilled in Portugal in 2012, according to Eurostat statistics.

As Portugal runs out of landfill space and businesses face the pressure of increased waste costs, many have discovered the benefits of the new facility. The wasteto-oil plant targets two different markets, namely waste management operators or producers and biodiesel producers or consumers.

The plant is a waste treatment facility and applies tipping fees, which makes it competitive with other treatment technologies with the advantage of supplying a more sustainable waste

recovery method. In 2015, the process was tested and validated with nearly 700 tonnes of waste, and nearly 140 tonnes of oil with free fatty acids (FFA) were extracted.

In 2016 the unit started to operate in an industrial mode, with a processing capacity of 3t/h of feedstock.

The process So, how does the technology work? ENC Energy facilities are prepared to receive the liquid waste with fat content, which is stored and laboratory tested to ensure its feasibility for the recovery process. The first stage of the process consists of the removal of water and solids

from the waste feedstock by using a mechanical/ physical system that allows the extraction of the FFA. The extracted oil has an 87% FFA content, and due to its origins it can be used to produce advanced biodiesel. Depending on market requirements, the process may then continue into a second stage – a chemical transformation of the FFA in order to reduce its acidity to values under 1% or even continue into the production of biodiesel.

Acidity levels are customised to meet clients’ needs.

The waste management industry is well-established in Portugal, making it easy for ENC Energy to reach waste

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Storage tanks outside an industrial plant

collectors interested in using its waste recovery services.

Ensuring the constant inflow of waste feedstock, in order to maintain a regular operational level, is a challenge and a key to the facility’s success.

The major challenge at a national level has been access to waste producers, who are still not fully aware of these kinds of waste recovery methods and often transfer the responsibility of waste management to resource collection companies. Due to the broad range of waste received, the optimisation of the recovery process has also been one of the major challenges, which has been overcome with an innovation-oriented approach, combining the use of advanced technology and internal know-how.

Opportunities The waste-to-oil project allowed the ENC Energy team to take a leap forward both into the waste management segment and the biofuels industry, bringing together these two worlds through a

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Process equipment inside of an industrial plant

The major challenge at a national level has been access to waste producers new methodological approach.

This research and development (R&D) project investment was supported by equity and co-financed

by EU funds, under the incentives for innovation system by ON2, QREN, and the EU. The total investment (including all R&D activities, tests, and construction of pilot plant) was â‚Ź4 million.

After the validation period,

ENC Energy is now looking at international opportunities.

The company is able to supply turnkey waste-to-oil plants that can be integrated both in the waste management and the biodiesel production value chains, thus contributing to a more sustainable, environmentally friendly waste-to-fuel process.

Industries that are heavy producers of waste oils with

fat content are also facing opportunities to turn their own waste into marketable sustainable products. ENC Energy can help them go green and improve their overall economic and environmental performance. For the biodiesel sector, ENC Energy’s process allows the incorporation of a new stream of feedstock, using residual materials that contribute to meeting the sustainability requirements and targets in the sector. l For more information: This article was written by Sandra Oliveira, business development director at ENC Energy.

Visit: www.encenergy.com

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How one company is scaling up its continuous catalytic thermochemical process to ensure rapid implementation

The path to commercialisation

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n December 2015 an announcement was made regarding the planned construction of a 5 tonnes per day IH2 technology demonstration plant on the site of Shell India Markets’ new technology centre in Bangalore, India.

This technology is a continuous catalytic thermochemical process that converts a broad range of biomass and organic residues into ‘drop-in’ hydrocarbon liquid fuels that are compatible with existing fuel infrastructure.

The process economics have been estimated to provide a cost-effective route – between $1.50 and $3 (€1.4-2.8) per gallon in 2015 – depending on feedstock selection, unit size, the level of integration with an existing site, and client site specifics.

The IH2 technology was developed by, and is a registered trademark of, the Gas Technology Institute (GTI), based in Illinois, US. CRI Catalyst Co. (CRI) has been Artist impression of IH2 technology demonstration plant on the site of Shell India Markets’ new technology centre in Bangalore, India

granted exclusive worldwide licensing rights. As partners in a joint development agreement, both parties continue to patent the technology advancements.

Process technology Biomass contains carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, nitrogen and sulphur as primary components, along with various inorganic materials. In order to produce high quality hydrocarbons, everything with the exception of the carbon and hydrogen must be removed. In order to remove all but the carbon and hydrogen, the IH2 process has four primary components that transform the solid residual biomass into liquid hydrocarbon fuels: 1. Biomass conditioning Here the biomass is dried and sized.

2. Catalytic reactor (1) In this first reactor (a bubbling fluidized bed), the biomass

IH2 liquid products

rapidly reaches reaction temperature and devolatises in the fluidization medium of renewable hydrogen. The volatile components from the biomass react with hydrogen in the presence of proprietary CRI catalysts resulting in an exothermic hydro deoxygenation reaction. This produces a raw hydrocarbon product, as well as water in the form of steam and biogenic carbon dioxide. The catalyst and hydrogen both serve to remove oxygen and cap reactive-free radicals to provide a stable hydrocarbon

product. As the vapour stream exits the first stage, it goes through a cyclonic separation to remove the ash and biochar.

3. Catalytic reactor (2) The vapour phase then enters the second catalytic reactor – a fixed bed hydrotreater.

This uses other proprietary CRI catalysts to polish the first stage product, removing residual oxygen and reducing the sulphur, nitrogen and aromatics to transform the raw product into a finished hydrocarbon fuel or blend stock. After the polishing stage hydrotreater the gases are cooled, condensed, and the water is separated.

The resulting hydrocarbons can then be fractionated to remove light ends (propane, ethane, methane) from the higher boiling liquids spanning the petrol, kerosene and diesel range.

4. Hydrogen makeup unit (HMU) A HMU is essentially a steam methane reformer (SMR), which converts light gases generated in the reactors to renewable hydrogen.

The renewable hydrogen

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produced from the conversion of the hydrocarbon light ends is sufficient in quantity to supply the process needs in the catalytic stages of the IH2 process.

Each one of these individual components is commercially proven. The bubbling fluidized bed reactor is similar to an industrial boiler, just operating with a hydrogen atmosphere and catalyst particles replacing the otherwise inert sand or other heat transfer medium. Once the biomass is converted to a predominantly hydrocarbon stream in the first stage, the downstream unit operations are common to a petroleum refinery. Using unit operations that are wellknown in global commercial operations minimises design risk and allows for rapid implementation of the technology.

Lessons learned The scale-up of IH2 technology continues to progress. Most significant is the approved construction of its 5 tonnes per day demo facility in Bangalore. In addition, IH2 technology product quality is advancing, with initial work focused on aviation fuels and improvements that will bring fuels closer to EN specifications. The US DOE project to evaluate the integration of IH2 technology with a fossil refiner is complete, with client feedstock and yield mapping experiments on lab- and pilot-scale continuing to further process knowledge.

The IH2 technology is a catalytic thermochemical process, the economics of which are estimated to provide a cost-effective route, depending on the feedstock selection, the level of integration with an existing site, and client site specifics. l For more information: This article was written by was written by Celeste McLeod, renewable fuels specialist at CRI. Visit: www.cricatalyst.com

biofuels international

Advancements IH2 TECHNOLOGY has continued to advance over the last 12 months as it continues on its path of commercial deployment.

US Department of Energy support A study funded in part by the US Department of Energy (DOE), under the integrated biorefinery initiative, was completed. This study looked at three primary integration scenarios for the technology with an existing refinery.

Feedstocks commissioned for the US DOE study included woody biomass and residual agricultural corn stover. Both feeds were successfully converted to hydrocarbons and were below the detection limit for both oxygen and total acid number (TAN) in the second stage product.

The US-based refiner participating in the DOE project concluded that having a fully independent IH2 process facility, producing hydrocarbons that met ASTM specifications would be their preferred scenario to mitigate risk. The fully processed products from the IH2 process were determined acceptable for blending into finished refinery products.

Expanding feedstock evaluations The IH2 process has been shown to convert wood, forest and agricultural residues, algae, aquatic plants and cellulosic fractions of municipal waste to petrol, kerosene and diesel range hydrocarbon fuels and/or blend stocks.

In the past year, focus has been given to sugarcane bagasse. This has been of particular interest as significant sugarcane producers exist in South East Asia and Latin America. Client specific bagasse studies have been conducted and successfully converted the cane residue to liquid petrol, kerosene and diesel boiling range hydrocarbon at the technology centre in Bangalore. This feedstock is progressing to pilot plant scale processing to validate the successful yield and product quality targets achieved at the lab scale.

Fuel quality improvements Fuel product quality continues to improve.

Petrol and diesel fuels made from woody biomass are expected to meet the ASTM specifications D4814 (as a blend with 10% ethanol) and D975 respectively.

Advancement for European Union specifications have also continued, with progress being made for both the petrol and diesel products.

The high quality of the diesel fraction has

prompted CRI to initiate evaluation of the aviation fuel component against the World Wide Civil Jet Fuel Grades. The kerosene produced from the IH2 technology has met all Jet-A1 specification tested thus far.

Pilot plant operation Continuous operation of the pilot plant on the latest CRI proprietary catalyst packages for the technology reactors has resulted in more than 5,000 hours of operation and the production of more than 450 gallons of hydrocarbons for third party evaluation of the product quality. With continued operation, reliability has improved and implemented design and operational findings will be translated to demonstration/ commercial scale. To date, the ability to scale up and scale down the technology has resulted in multiple successful technology deployments. Demonstration scale is anticipated in the near term.

Commercialisation CRI has a strategic alliance with Zeton, a designer and builder of lab-scale systems and pilot, demonstration and small modular commercial plants, which is supporting the technology with design and fabrication of the demo plants.

Zeton also designed and constructed the modular IH2 technology pilot plant, and multiple IH2 technology R&D assets that operate under the leadership of CRI’s research staff in Bangalore. The company will provide the Basic Engineering Package for the demonstration plant will also manufacture the majority of the IH2 demonstration unit – except for the SMR which is being contracted out to another party.

The facility in Bangalore will be designed to allow for variation in feedstock.

Relevant commercial feedstocks, such as residual woody biomass and select agricultural and municipal residues, will be within the intended feed scope.

Houston, Texas-based KBR is CRI’s alliance partner for commercial scale engineering services. The advancement of third party discussions has seen KBR support several of CRI’s clients through front-end loading 2 evaluation of specific locations as many of the initial potential technology adopters have existing operations at which an IH2 commercial facility could be co-located. These ongoing engineering and evaluation activities also continue to contribute to improvements in the overall commercial design.

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biofuels nutrients and antibiotics Managing yeast nutrition in ethanol fermentation is essential for maintaining a smooth production process and plant profits

Achieving effective fermentation

O

ne part that seems to slip past the focus in fuel ethanol plant fermentation is how to make the process efficient and how to create a healthy, fast, and thorough fermentation. One of the most overlooked portions of fermentation is the ability to maintain a healthy viable yeast cell through nutrition.

To provide an efficient effective fermentation (EEF) in the biofuels industry, yeast must remain healthy throughout the fermentation process, while bacteria is kept at bay. Most of the points of discussion around nutrition revolve around determining what is needed, the ways of evaluating whether chosen methods are useful, and should they be implemented individually or in a manufactured package, dry or liquid.

Over the past year, the ethanol industry has suffered from low input costs with

lower prices of ethanol and co-products than in previous years. During this period, many plants have operated well beyond design capacity, which can result in poorer performance by leaving insoluble starch and unconverted sugars behind.

With the change in economics, the growth of the ethanol industry has slowed and the focus of plant operations has shifted to increasing yield and efficiency.

This has forced plants to push higher solids into fermentation to maximise ethanol concentration.

Increasing the amount of liquefaction solids will also increase the amount of dry distillers grain coming out of the backend process.

Yeast nutrition determines fermentation kinetics, the completion of fermentation, and impacts the organoleptic profile of mash. Additionally, sterols and long-chain fatty acids are elements that help

yeast survive in stressful conditions and facilitate the completion of fermentation.

Sugar sweet The simple and basic food source for yeast in the ethanol fermentation process is sugar. The yeast needs this sugar (glucose/sucrose) to provide cellular energy to produce ethanol, while also producing carbon dioxide as a side effect (in roughly equal proportions). There are many different substrates used in ethanol, from basic starch through various grains (corn, milo, and wheat) but also different sugar sources such as molasses and cane sugar.

To get glucose from the different grains, multiple different enzymes are used to break down the dextrins into easily fermented sugars (mostly glucose). To maintain an efficient fermentation, glycerol production must be kept as low as possible. One

Glucose

Glycolysis

Fermentation

Lactate

Without O2

Ethanol and CO2

Anaerobic processes

Diagram of the fermentation process

Pyruvate

(Net)

With O2

2 ATP

2 ATP

Krebs cycle

Electron transport chain

Up to

Aerobic respiration

34 ATP

way that glycerol is produced is through osmotic pressure from high levels of glucose early in fermentation. Glycerol production is cells’ way to protect and redox themselves to maintain chemical balance.

There are two different methods operators can undertake to control glycerol levels. One option is to control stressors in fermentation to keep a satisfactory EEF going. Alternatively, operators can purchase biotech yeast. Biotech yeast is engineered to produce less glycerol and more ethanol, which will make the biofuel plant more profitable.

Breathing in Yeast cannot bud without oxygen. The rate of fermentation of a growing biofuel yeast strain in the exponential phase is 33-fold higher than non-growing cells. The one compound that serves as the main storehouse of the cellular energy is called adenosine triphosphate (ATP).

Much of the energy released by yeast cells is captured by ATP and stored in its highenergy phosphate bonds, to be used when ATP takes part in anabolic reactions.

Oxygen has two roles, respiration and fermentation.

Respiration means simply the consumption of oxygen. To a plant, respiration means the production of biochemical energy in the form of ATP through a process. During respiration, yeast derives a net gain of 28 molecules of ATP from each glucose molecule,

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while during fermentation (anaerobic process), it gains only two. Fermentation is where the yeast produces ethanol and will respire only when the concentration of fermentable sugars is very low and oxygen is available.

Energy boost In addition to sugar and oxygen, yeast needs access to certain nutrients in order to remain healthy. These nutrients include amino acids, fatty acids, and nitrogen. In fermentation these compounds are usually readily available in the corn, wheat, and barley. Yeast assimilable nitrogen (YAN) is a measurement of the primary organic (free amino acids) and inorganic (ammonia and ammonium) sources of nitrogen that can be assimilated by Saccharomyces cerevisiae. Outside of the fermentable sugars, nitrogen is the most important nutrient needed to carry out a successful fermentation.

Some of the nitrogen comes in with the grain and the backset recycle stream.

One way to introduce amino acids to the fermenter is by adding an acid fungal protease. This enzyme is usually added during fermentation fill. The use of a protease enzyme in ethanol fermentation will hydrolyse the protein, which will increase

Total FAN

Useable FAN 64

Barley 84

62

Hulless Barley

100

124

Oat 193 159 Hulless Oat

184

130

Rye 103 83 Molasses 267

141

Corn 70 58 Starch Slurry

Near 0

Near 0

Usable nitrogen levels in mg/l mash from various grains normalized to 22% w/v dissolved solids

biofuels international

Eat your vitamins There are many different vitamins and minerals that provide a benefit to the yeast, which can help the EEF during the production process. The yeast cell needs vitamins in small quantities to maintain enzyme structure and function, and minerals for enzyme stability and metabolism. Vitamins such as biotin, thiamine, pantothenic acid, and inositol are essential for enzyme function and yeast growth.

Saccharomyces cerevisiae generally cannot synthesize biotin, but the vitamin is required for carboxylation, which is the chemical reaction where the carboxylic acid functional group is reduced in the mash. Biotin deficiencies will result in yeast with high death rates within fermentation. Thiamine is another vitamin that affects the metabolism and yeast growth. The growth factor and fermentation rate at the same

magnitude of the dosage.

Minerals are extremely important for maintaining the cell wall and assisting with cell stress. Some of the minerals that lend a hand are magnesium (Mg), zinc (Zn), and potassium (P). Magnesium is known to assist the yeast in dealing with stressors such as osmotic pressure which was discussed earlier, temperature, and ethanol levels. Increasing the Mg-tocalcium (Ca) ratio increases the rate of fermentation.

When fermentation is showing stagnating tendencies, adding zinc will help if there is a deficient of the mineral in the mash makeup.

Zinc can also assist the yeast cell when making ethanol in fermentation.

Antibiotic solutions An important question to ask is how antibiotics can help with EEF in the biofuels industry. Perhaps the first concern for ethanol plants is determining whether they have an effective clean-inplace (CIP) procedure set up.

If the CIP procedure is done correctly and consistently, meaning using the proper caustic concentrations, temperature, time, and velocity within the vessel, the plant can run with little or no antibiotics.

However, antibiotics may be the only option in some cases because of the specific action pattern and the growth rate of bacteria. Some bacteria can double in numbers up to nine times faster than yeast. With the current

Ingredients Importance Magnesium Insulates the cell against stress factors like

temperature, alcohol, and osmotic pressure Zinc

Helps the cell produce fermentation enzymes.

Shortage can cause slow or sluggish fermentation

Calcium

Helps stimulate cell growth and cell wall permeation

Copper

Helps in the cell internal enzyme production

Potassium Helps with storage of ATP within the cell

Roles of metallic ions

march/april 2016 51

Source: The Alcohol Textbook, Fifth Edition

Wheat 82

help maintain the yeast cell wall membrane integrity and in the cells’ resistance to stress. In anaerobic growth (ethanol production), without the presence of low levels of molecular oxygen, these components (sterols and unsaturated fatty acids) cannot be produced by the cell, which results in a lack of resistance to stress. Without oxygen, the mother cells donate these compounds to daughter cells, and eventually both are weakened and fermentation suffers.

Source: The Alcohol Textbook, Fifth Edition

Mash

soluble protein, free amino nitrogen (FAN), and release protein-bound starch for fermentation. It will also help to improve ethanol yield.

Over the course of fermentation, yeast may utilise the amino acids, though often far less than the present amount is needed. Yeast can store amino acids in its intracellular membrane and then later either use them directly (by incorporating them into proteins), or break them down and use their carbon and nitrogen components separately. Nitrogen can be added to the process in other ways as well, for example by adding ammonia up-front in slurry and liquefaction to control pH. Urea can also be added during other chemical additions to provide nitrogen for the yeast.

Sterols and unsaturated fatty acids are components of the yeast cell membrane and are responsible for its fluidity. They maintain yeast’s capacity for consuming sugar, increase alcohol tolerance, and reduce volatile acidity production. Oxygen has a synergistic effect with sterol production. During the aerobic process of yeast production, the yeast cell utilises high levels of oxygen to produce cell mass. It also produces high levels of sterols and unsaturated fatty acids needed in the cell membrane.

These two components

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biofuels nutrients and antibiotics Biotin

Carboxylation and decarboxylation reactions

Thiamin

Amino acid biosynthesis

Inositol

Structural membranes

Niacin

Coenzymes in redox reactions

Calcium Pantothenate

Coenzymes in oxidation reactions. Fatty, amino acid

Riboflavin

Coenzymes in redox reactions

Roles of vitamins

Source: The Alcohol Textbook, Fifth Edition

Ingredients Importance

economics of the industry, plants are not in the position to lose profits because of bacterial contamination.

Bacterial contamination is a major cause of reduced yields in ethanol production.

Different antibiotics can inhibit different bacteria.

Virginiamycin typically is used when dealing with lactobacillus bacteria, with the typical dosage of virginiamycin

ranging from 0.1ppm to 3ppm. It can be used in propagation or fermentation.

Another bacterium that seems to be most prevalent is acetobacter, a genus of acetic acid bacteria. Acetic acid bacteria are characterised by the ability to convert ethanol to acetic acid in the presence of oxygen. Penicillin is another useful antibiotic that is used in the biofuels industry, but its usefulness is limited due to its narrow pH and temperature range.

So why is contamination control important? The difference of 1% in volume of ethanol to a plant that produces 100,000 gpd (378,500l/d) due to a contamination event is $1,450 (â‚Ź1,287) based on $1.45/g (â‚Ź0.34/l) price. Use of antibiotics at the industrialscale ethanol fermentation level can avoid losses due to contamination. Over a course of a year a plant can have a series of events that would result in a loss of ethanol. For example, five contamination events with the above pricing model would result in a loss of $7,250. What is not included in the loss are all the raw materials that went into the ailing fermenter.

In summary, EEF starts with the yeast and a clean environment. Yeast nutrition is an essential factor in both the overall health and success of fermentation. Managing nutrient requirements not only allows for regular but also complete fermentations. Many of these nutritional needs can be satisfied by ready-made packages available from yeast and nutrient providers. With a clean environment and bacteria under control, plants can maintain high ethanol concentration with consistent fermentation, which helps make them more profitable. l For more information: This article was written by Jim Miers, nutrient category manager at Lallemand BioFuels & Distilled Spirits. Visit: www.lallemand.com

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Woodcote Media is proud to bring you Fluid Handling International, a bi-monthly publication entirely dedicated to liquid handling and transfer equipment in the food & beverage, pharmaceutical, wastewater and oil & petrochemical industries.

The digital magazine is sent to over 12,000 utilities, plant engineers, managers and operations directors. On top of this the Fluid Handling website is updated daily. Sign up for free now at www.fluidhandling.com to receive both the magazine and weekly newsletter.

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biofuels catalysis Retrofitting new equipment has enabled a US biodiesel manufacturer to optimise its plant

Out with the old

C

rimson Renewable Energy owns and operates a biodiesel production facility in Bakersfield, California, that is currently the largest producer of biodiesel within the state in terms of actual volumes shipped. Yet the plant did not start out this way, and it was originally designed inhouse and built in 2009 as a biodiesel plant engineered to process virgin vegetable oils.

Crimson performed substantial modifications in 2010 through mid-2011 to enable the plant to utilise lower cost, lower carbon feedstocks, such as used cooking oil (UCO), inedible animal fats, and inedible corn oil from ethanol plants. The plant began commissioning in fall 2011 and shipped its first production lots during the same year in December.

During the course of 2012 and 2013 the plant ramped up its operations and ran into various bottlenecks that prevented it from achieving its full capacity. While the new reactors for transesterification and acid esterification installed in 2010-2011 worked well and according to design, bottlenecks occurred in certain portions of the utility systems and in certain sections of the other processing systems.

Searching for a solution By mid-2013, Crimson’s management team decided to make substantial investments to correct these bottlenecks and also to expand the nominal capacity to 2 million gpm. The Crimson team teamed up with Austria-based BDI-Bio Energy International (BDI) to conduct evaluations of the existing plant, complete pre-engineering,

modify the glycerin and biodiesel wash systems, and install new processing units. Crimson found BDI’s

determined each element in the overall scope of work, including which parts would be handled by Crimson and

The project improves energy efficiency while reducing water usage RetroFit programme to be a clearly structured project development concept that can successfully manage the complexity that comes with modifying an existing plant while minimising downtime.

The BDI team came onsite for the initial plant review and data gathering necessary for the pre-engineering phase.

The team evaluated the mass and energy balance of the existing plant, which was critical as the basis for all further improvements.

During this initial phase, the Crimson team worked with BDI to determine the targets for the plant modification and discussed the range of process design options that might resolve the bottlenecks.

The next step was a preengineering study including the design of the process modifications. In order to verify the proposed elements of BDI’s RetroFit concept, lab testing under specified conditions were carried out at BDI’s extensive experimental facilities in Austria. Based on engineering and testing, the mass and energy balance were updated and the layout of equipment was designed to take into account the existing plant and site constraints. In addition, product and by-product qualities as well as investment costs were evaluated.

Crimson and BDI then

which parts by BDI. At that point, Crimson completed a supply contract with BDI for certain equipment, systems, and related design and engineering. BDI’s scope of work concentrated on design, engineering, and supply of equipment for (a) improving the biodiesel wash process with minimisation of side streams, and (b) installing a by-product treatment system. a) The original process includes a two-stage catalytic transesterification of triglycerides to methyl ester in connection with two purification steps using a huge amount of washing water. In order to improve the biodiesel purification and optimise water consumption, two additional washing steps were designed. Even with two additional washing steps, water consumption is reduced due to the high efficiency of the BDI purification concept, the combination of mixing and settling, and use of internal recycling streams.

Additionally, the BDI washing concept helps ensure proper biodiesel quality when using low-grade feedstocks like UCO and animal fats. b) The glycerine phase formed during the transesterification steps mainly consists of glycerine, sodium soaps, methanol, and water. Together with the

discharged washing water, the glycerine phase is acidulated by using a side stream from the existing esterification step and acid. This reaction forms a three-phase mixture roughly consisting of glycerine, fatty acid, and a solid phase which is then separated in a centrifuge. The fatty acid phase is recycled back to the esterification unit for processing into biodiesel. Solids are dried in a continuous, vapour-tight drying unit and discharged.

The glycerine is neutralised and the remaining solids are separated before the glycerine enters the existing glycerine system for further purification.

The work begins BDI provided engineering and quality assurance during the installation phase to ensure proper installation of all equipment and related mechanical and electrical work. Additionally, the commissioning will be done

by BDI’s commission team together with Crimson plant personnel right from the beginning. During the commissioning phase BDI is responsible for familiarising the plant personnel with the new technology and process steps, including class room training and field training.

Crimson’s scope of work includes civil engineering, site preparation, foundations, and the structural, piping and electrical work related to the installation of the BDI systems (including final tie-in to the existing plant). Additionally, Crimson was responsible for multiple major changes to the plant that were completed in 2014 and early 2015.

Among the more significant modifications was the upgrade

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to the utilities. For example, to satisfy the greater heat load, the original steam generators were replaced with a single larger steam generator that operates at higher efficiency and with lower emissions, which was critical for meeting California’s increasingly stringent emissions requirements such as 7ppm NOx. Along with the larger steam generator, the steam and condensate piping system was reworked to accommodate the higher steam demand. Other elements performed by Crimson’s in-house team and sub-contractors included: a) The capacity of the feedstock pre-treatment system was increased by adding a second centrifuge, effectively doubling the throughput of this unit. Pumps and line sizes were also increased in this area. A large buffer vessel will be added to decouple the pre-treatment system from the downstream reaction stages, thereby improving operational stability and shortening overall plant start up times after regular maintenance shutdowns. b) A third transesterification reactor is being added to the original two reactors.

The reactor will make use of existing pumps and piping. c) The capacity of the methanol recovery system was increased by installing new high-capacity trays in the methanol distillation column that recovers and purifies the excess methanol from the biodiesel reactions.

The column reboiler was also replaced with a larger model and all vapour line sizes were increased. While the column internals were replaced, it was re-insulated to further reduce heat loss. d) The glycerin processing system was upgraded by installing larger pumps, piping and heat exchangers.

A new clean-in-place system was also added.

The controls system was

biofuels international

improved by adding new instruments and implementing new control strategies. e) A new 300,000 gallon biodiesel storage tank is being added together with a new loading bay to enable quick load-out turn times as it expands production and shipments.

Conclusion Crimson’s expansion and improvement project took place over a two-year period encompassing the redesign of multiple process steps and changes to equipment, piping, and certain utility systems to resolve bottlenecks and meet the new higher production target. The project not only increases the plant capacity but also improves energy efficiency while reducing water usage.

The company was able to complete the work while continuously maintaining production over the two years, except for one twoday, another five-day, and a final 14-day shutdown. The firm was able to incrementally increase monthly production to its current level that is 70% higher than March 2014 just before the first improvements were installed in April 2014.

Crimson also achieves a high level of product quality, consistently producing biodiesel with total glycerin of 0.005-0.008% mass and mono-glycerides of 0.2-0.3% mass. It expects to complete the final phase of its project in Q2 2016 and increase production by another 20% to achieve its ultimate production goal of 2 million gpm. l

Biomass Biodiesel Bioethanol Cogeneration From Basic Engineering to Full Turnkey Project Single Point Responsibility through EPC or EPCM+© with guaranteed: ✔ Process Performances ✔ Time Schedule ✔ Budget

Engineers & Contractors Brussels • Belgium Tel.: +32 (0)2 634 25 00 Fax: +32 (0)2 634 25 25 E-mail: info@dsengineers.com For more information: This article was written by Harry Simpson, president at Crimson Renewable Energy. Visit: www.crimsonrenewable.com

Reliability through Experience march/april 2016 55

biofuels heading

waste

from

value

to

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BDI BioDiesel Multi-Feedstock Technology from the market leader

BDI BioGas The solution for industrial and municipal waste

BDI - BioEnergy International AG 8074 Raaba-Grambach Austria Phone +43 (0)316 4009 100 Fax +43 (0)316 4009 110 bdi@bdi-bioenergy.com www.bdi-bioenergy.com

BDI RetroFit Plant optimisation from the technology leader

BDI bioCRACK A refinery integrated biomass-to-liquid concept

From waste to value: BDI – BioEnergy International AG develops technologies for producing energy from waste and by-products while ensuring maximum preservation of resources at the same time!

56 march/april 2016 biofuels international

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A summary of the recent explosions, fires and leaks in the biofuels industry Date

Location

Company

Incident information

25/01/2016

Tennessee, US

Eco-Energy Tranportation

The US Department of Environmental Quality has given Eco-Energy Transport (EET) two months to clean an ethanol spill, which has not been touched since June 2015.

In April 2015, the company’s truck carrying thousands of gallons of ethanol crashed and spilled its load to the ground in North Carolina, killing the driver.

EET has been given until March 2016 to finish the clean-up.

18/01/2016

Indiana, US

Valero Renewable Fuels

An explosion, followed by a fire in a grain dryer, wracked Valero Renewable Fuels’ ethanol plant in Mt. Vernon, Indiana.

An eyewitness told local 14NEWS the explosion was so powerful he felt the ground shake.

No injuries have been reported, but the plant may remain closed for up to a week.

14/01/2016

New York, US

Western New York Energy

Western New York Energy was fined $87,000 (€80,300) for illegally disposing of contaminated wastewater at its ethanol production facility in Shelby, NY. The ammonia- and petrochemical-laden water was dumped into the ground at the facility by ethanol tank cleaner Hydro-Klean.

No evidence of lasting environmental damage has been found.

14/01/2016

Sao Paulo, Brazil

Port of Santos

Operations at the Port of Santos in Brazil, used to ship ethanol and other fuels, were partially suspended due to a chemical fire resulting in toxic smoke.

Firefighter contained and extinguished the fire by the following day.

Five terminals were closed, but the incident did not disrupt the port’s ethanol operations.

06/01/2016

Pennsylvania, US

Kinder Morgan

The Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection has fined fuel handling company Kinder Morgan (KM) $745,000 (€684,750) for storage tank violations. $570,000 of the fine will be paid for Storage Tank and Spill Prevention Act violations after thousands of gallons of bioethanol leaked out of KM’s terminal in Philadelphia.

The remaining $175,000 is related to storm water accumulation in emergency release containment structures at another terminal.

biofuels international

march/april 2016 57

biofuels biochemicals Recent developments in technology and markets pose challenges and opportunities for bio-based chemicals

Bio-based building blocks

W

ith new economic conditions, 2016 apparently started as a challenging year. Yet this new environment does not alter the perspectives for bio-based chemicals. Feedstocks are still low, advanced economies are showing stronger growth, and value has moved downstream of the value chain. Bio-based chemicals appear as a solution to provide downstream diversification for biobased feedstock producers and feedstock flexibility for chemical players. New technologies have emerged, allowing the conversion of bio-based feedstock into high-volume commoditised chemicals, high-value niche chemicals, or – for most recent technology developments – chemicals associated with both high-value and large existing markets.

A new environment With oil price collapse and emerging economies slowdown in 2015, biobased industries face a new environment. The 2015 oil price collapse has been partly compensated by bio-based feedstock price decrease, which occurred since the beginning of 2014 for corn and during the last three years for raw sugar. 2014 was on average a favourable year, with corn prices decreasing while crude oil was still at high levels before December.

Rather than a period of low oil, this period should more

precisely be defined as a period of low feedstocks with many consequences.

Since current bio-based chemicals either remain more expensive to produce than fossil-based or have a limited supply capacity, bio-based chemicals are purchased at a premium price by some brands to provide a marketing advantage, usually for premium applications.

Such market is mainly located in advanced economies.

Emerging economies’ growth expanded the volume of demand for petrochemicals, but probably had a limited effect on premium-priced bio-based alternatives.

Despite global growth slowing down due to emerging economies, stronger growth of advanced economies may be more favourable for biobased products demand.

Low crude oil price also creates a wealth effect for consumers. With low feedstocks, even if the premium for bio-based chemicals has increased in relative terms compared to 2013, it has decreased in absolute terms. It is thus more affordable for consumers and brands.

Low feedstocks also transferred value from raw materials producers to intermediary conversion steps.

Prices of petrochemicals and plastics have not fallen in line with crude oil. For example, between September 2014 and September 2015, ICIS reports that the average price of commodity plastics and elastomers used in the automotive sector (monitored through an index called Global ICIS Basket of Automotive Petrochemicals) fell by 27%, while crude oil fell by 49%.

Crude oil refining margins are at record levels. In Europe, for instance, the refining margin (as reported by Total) went from $19/ton (appr. €15.9/tonne) in 2014 to $49/

Feedstock price evolution: average price in 2012 - 2015 Feedstock price evoluCon: average price in 2012 - 2015 Crude oil ($/bl) Scale: 2012 average as reference level

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112 109

Corn ($/t)

Raw sugar (cts/lb)

282 289

99

21 200

18 17 13

170

52

2012

2013

2014

2015

Source: World Bank, Brent for crude oil, US n°2 yellow for corn, ICE n°11 for raw sugar

Source: World Bank, Brent for crude oil, US n°2 yellow for corn, ICE n°11 for raw sugar

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Growth rates Growth rates (2012 - 2015) (2012 - 2015) 5.2% 5.0%

4.6% 4.0%

1.8% 2.0% 1.2% 1.1%

Advanced economies

2012

Emerging markets & developing economies

2013

2014

2015F

Source: Interna-onal Monetary Fund, World Economic Outlook, October 2015 Source: International Monetary Fund, World Economic Outlook, October 2015

ton in 2015. For bio-based feedstock suppliers (corn, sugar, and wood) or for chemical companies willing to diversify their feedstock base, there is now more value downstream of the value chain than in 2013, which provides incentives to invest in bio-based chemicals assets. But which molecules can be replaced by biobased alternatives, and how attractive do the respective business cases look like?

C1 and C2 Easy-to-access bio-based molecules are the ones already produced by microorganisms, such as methane or ethanol, which are biobased platform molecules to make C1 and C2 compounds.

Chemical technologies open the access to derivatives: ethanol can be dehydrated to ethylene, then converted into polyethylene plastic, plastic bottle feedstock ethylene glycol, or ethylene oxide, a feedstock for surfactants.

Existing capacities are Braskem’s 181,440 tpy bio-based ethylene plant in Brazil.There are also some bio-based ethylene glycol capacities, in India (India Glycols) and Taiwan (Greencol Taïwan Corporation).

Recently, Croda announced an investment of $170 million into a facility in Delaware, US, to convert ethanol into ethylene oxide. The Croda project is scheduled to start production in 2017 and the

biofuels international

development will 100% bio-based surfactants.

These bio-based building blocks benefit from ample ethanol availability, due to the biofuel market and demonstrated technologies, but face an economical challenge. With the development of the shale gas industry in the US, methane and ethane availabilities have increased and their prices have fallen. Lower methane costs drives lower price for methanol and C1 derivatives.

Ethylene can be produced at a low cost from ethane.

Current ethane cracker projects in the US will add fossil-based ethylene (33% capacity increase expected for 2018, according to Platts) and derivatives supply above domestic demand. With such a trend, bio-based projects in C1 and C2 petrochemicals will probably remain on biobased premium, capitalising on the differentiating advantage of a unique offer of bio-based material for specific applications.

Instead of producing the petrochemicals which are easy to derive from petroleum, an alternative is to focus on the molecules which are more difficult and costly to derive from crude oil.

Biotechnology enables the access to such molecules.

Biotechnology-based approaches Traditional biotechnology enables commercial

production of numerous products through the optimisation and upscaling of natural metabolic pathways of micro-organisms. These natural products were either not previously used in the industry or are used in existing niche markets. The technological challenge is associated with a market challenge and technical development is needed to expand applications.

One example of such products is 1,3-propanediol, produced by DuPont Tate & Lyle in a 58,000t plant in Loudon, Tennessee. Another molecule is succinic acid, the largest plant for it being BioAmber’s 27, 215t facility in Sarnia, Canada, operating since 2015. Other plants and projects target other acids, diacids, and alcohols. For example, Green Biologics is building a plant in Little Falls, Minnesota, to convert corn carbohydrates into butanol and acetone, which should start up later this year.

The main disadvantage of fermentation to oxygenated liquid molecules is the toxicity for micro-organisms, usually higher than for ethanol, and the cost of purification from the liquid medium, which contains many molecules. To avoid these disadvantages, direct fermentation to a gaseous olefin can be utilised.

This technology required a breakthrough innovation, namely synthetic biology.

Process-wise, the direct biological production of gases entails two key advantages: fermentation without titer limitation (gaseous products do not accumulate and no toxicity therefore impairs production) and eased purification (using existing petrochemical separation technologies). These will result in lower production costs and improved competitiveness.

Finally, the ability to directly and competitively target large existing markets will facilitate commercial deployment of this technology.

One of the few examples of synthetic biology developments for industrial biotechnologies is Global Bioenergies’ direct fermentation to isobutene.

The process is operated in a pilot plant in Pomacle, France, since November 2014 and a demonstration plant is currently being built in Leuna, Germany. A joint venture has been created with Cristal Union, a leading European sugar producer, to prepare the first full-scale plant, with a capacity of approximately 50,000tpy of isobutene. The full-scale plant is expected to start up in 2018. Global Bioenergies is also developing direct fermentation pathways to other high-value, highvolume chemicals – a such as butadiene and propylene – in partnership with European chemical company Synthos.

Synthetic biology

Larger bio-based availability

Synthetic biology is a new technological frontier being pushed back by few actors worldwide. It consists in the integration of artificial metabolic pathways based on previously undescribed enzymatic reactions in micro-organisms to enable direct production of key petrochemicals by fermentation. It unlocks an access to new molecules, such as olefins, key petrochemical building blocks.

Some technologies are also being developed to expand the scope of chemical conversion of existing biobased feedstock, such as conversion of ethanol into butadiene (BioButterfly project by Michelin, Axens, and IFP Energies Nouvelles), conversion of ethanol into butanol (Abengoa), or chemical conversion of biomass or sugar to paraxylene, feedstock for plastic bottles, or a paraxylene

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biofuels biochemicals substitute 2,5-Furandoxylic acid (FDCA). All these projects are still in development and each has its own challenges.

Existing chemical conversion technologies can also be combined with bio-based chemicals in order to increase their value or open additional markets.

For example, isobutene derived from synthetic biology can be converted to isooctene, which has a higher value but a limited market, or paraxylene, of lower value but large market.

For new plants producing bio-based molecules, it appears key to target molecules which are rather difficult and costly to derive from crude oil. Yet, at the same it is necessary to target molecules which have a large

Relative price and market size of chemical building blocks accessible from bio-based feedstock

competitive against fossilbased, while new fermentation technologies (standard biotechnology) give access to high value chemicals, which have a limited existing market. Synthetic biology and latest technologies can solve this dilemma, opening access to high value high volume chemicals. l

Source: Tecnon Orbichem, IHS, Platts, ICIS (from publicly available data)

existing market, in order to achieve economies of scale.

In the accompanying graph, which shows chemicals by relative price (values of 2013, last publicly available figures) and market size, current

commercial technologies for bio-based chemicals leave companies with a dilemma.

Chemical conversion of ethanol or methane gives access to high volume but low value chemicals that are not

For more information: This article was written by Ronan Rocle, business development manager at Global Bioenergies.

Visit: www.global-bioenergies.com

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biofuels software The complex world of third generation biofuels production requires some heavy-duty software tools

Making sense of it all

W

e are currently in the third generation of biofuels production, where customengineered micro-organisms are used to convert feedstock to fuel more efficiently and cost effectively. But with this new opportunity comes significantly more complex processes and risks of costly failure. Third generation biofuels producers must rely on next generation laboratories that are prepared for increased data management requirements, not just for production efficiency and quality control but also for more rigorous regulatory oversight.

This means that labs must rely on new analytical technologies as well as new software solutions that enable them to more closely monitor, analyse, and report. From gas chromatography (GC), ion chromatography, Fourier transform infrared (FTIR), and UV-visible spectroscopy to inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICPMS), next generation labs must contend with data on an unprecedented scale that requires a laboratory information management system (LIMS) built for such rigor.

Software to aid

The LIMS brings discipline to an environment with many complex moving parts. Enterpriselevel LIMS, designed for integration across the lab and with other enterprise systems, can seamlessly connect with and work in harmony with other systems, such as a chromatography data system (CDS). In the next generation biofuels lab, a CDS is critical to ensuring the quality of biofuels, which has everything to do with adherence to required gas and

ion chromatographic methods.

By guiding technicians through the execution of these methods, the CDS drives the laboratory processes related to all aspects of a chromatographic analysis.

Some CDS provide an even higher level of automation by encapsulating all of the unique aspects of a chromatography workflow, like instrument control and data processing parameters, correct injection order and reporting parameters, and guiding the operator through the minimal number of steps required to run it. The operator simply selects an instrument, specifies the number of samples and the starting vial position in the autosampler and begins the analysis.

The software then runs the chromatograph, processes the data, and produces final results.

A practical example Take for example ASTM D6584 and EN 14105, the main quantitative quality control methods for the determination of glycerol and glycerides in pure biodiesel by GC. When biodiesel (B100) is derived from vegetable oils, such as sunflower and palm oil, glycerol is created as a by-product.

Mono-, di-, and triglycerides, created as intermediates or unreacted starting material, also occur. These methods test for the presence of glycerol and glycerides in the final product, which is important because of their negative impact on fuel efficiency and engine performance.

While both of these analyses differ in small ways, there are some common elements. Both methods require complex and time-consuming sample and calibration standard preparation.

Samples are run in duplicate and compared to determine

analytical precision. With only a few clicks in the CDS, users can create and start a run and data analysis according to ASTM method requirements is automatically performed. Once analysed, advanced features such as intelligent run control can respond to failed sample replicates or standards and take predefined, immediate action, including reinjecting the samples without user intervention.

Final results can be sent directly to the LIMS, ensuring a quick response to all quality results. Any samples that fail to meet the specifications established by ASTM and EN are appropriately flagged as out of specification in the LIMS and preventative action can be taken. This level of automation across the laboratory process ensures product quality and boosts productivity.

Conclusion An LIMS is a proven workhorse in the biofuels industry, especially because it is uniquely suited to highly distributed lab environments with multiple instrument platforms, workflows, and standard operating procedures.

Although instruments perform discrete tasks and generate data for specific purposes, data integration is vital and an LIMS is critical to achieving an end-to-end flow of information across the lab and across all processes. To ensure efficient, safe and profitable biofuels production, labs must be able to support continuous process monitoring and manage the data outputs in a way that is useful to stakeholders across the enterprise when, where, and how they need it.

Third generation biofuels production processes are dynamic and complex. It can take weeks for feedstock to break down, and finding a problem at the end is costly indeed. Labs must therefore be able to use ever more sensitive analytical instruments and multilayer software infrastructure that enables instrument-, lab-, and enterprise-level insight and decision-making across the production process. l

For more information: This article was written by Trish Meek, senior manager of product marketing informatics & chromatography software; and Barbara van Cann, software product marketing specialist at Thermo Fisher Scientific. Visit: www.thermofisher.com

Thermo Fisher Scientific’s software system.

62 march/april 2016 biofuels international

March/April 2016

international

Good storage practice Preventing biodiesel quality degradation through proper storage

Biofuel quality issues Analysing the storage of FAME and water contamination challenges

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1 News

Storage Supplement March/April 2016 Woodcote Media Limited, Marshall House 124 Middleton Road, Morden,, Surrey SM4 6RW, UK www.biofuels-news.com MANAGING DIRECTOR Peter Patterson Tel: +44 (0)208 648 7082 peter@woodcotemedia.com EDITOR Liz Gyekye Tel: +44 (0)208 687 4183 liz@woodcotemedia.com DEPUTY EDITOR Ilari Kauppila Tel: +44 (0)208 687 4126 ilari@woodcotemedia.com INTERNATIONAL SALES MANAGER Matthew Clifton +44 (0)203 551 5751 matthew@biofuels-news.com

PRODUCTION Alison Balmer Tel: +44 (0)1673 876143 alisonbalmer@btconnect.com

ISSN 1754-2170

Odec Tankstorage, an independent biofuels storage company operating predominately within Sweden, is constructing a new 6,000m3 tank. The tank is being specifically built to hold bioproducts.

In a statement, the company said it expected the tank to be in “operation during the first quarter of 2016”. This will be Odec’s second 6,000m3 tank for bioproducts. It constructed a 6,000m3 tank in 2014.

Separately, Odec has increased its storage capacity by 35% in the space of two years, in line with its business strategy. l

Preventing biodiesel quality degradation through proper storage and maintenance practices

8 Next big trends in insurance

No part of this publication may be reproduced or stored in any form by any mechanical, electronic, photocopying, recording or other means without the prior written consent of the publisher. Whilst the information and articles in Biofuels International are published in good faith and every effort is made to check accuracy, readers should verify facts and statements direct with official sources before acting on them as the publisher can accept no responsibility in this respect. Any opinions expressed in this magazine should not be construed as those of the publisher.

Odec starts construction on new tank

Odec’s new 6,000m3 tank

6 Good storage practice: Ensuring high quality biodiesel

US SALES MANAGER Matt Weidner +1 610 486 6525 mtw@weidcom.com

Industry expert gives view on biodiesel industry and the new trends in insurance claims

10 News analysis

New benchmarking system hits industry. What is the response from some key players?

12 Safety in storage

Employers have legal responsibilities to ensure a safe and healthy workplace. Top company gives tips on how to prevent accidents when dealing with biofuels.

US biofuels marketer expands network with new terminal buy Lincoln Terminal Co., a US-based oil and products and biofuels marketing company, has acquired a new terminal, called Eco, in Charlotte, North Carolina.

According to reports on news website TankTerminals.com, Lincoln’s Charlotte terminal will have a total capacity of 130,000 bbl, and serves gasoline, ethanol and biodiesel.

The terminal can also cater for different products and automated biodiesel blending.

In a statement, the company said that the terminal was complementary to Lincoln’s growing south east-based terminal footprint and aligns with its biofuels marketing effort in that region.

“Eco had made improvements and maintained the terminal well during its ownership. Lincoln is completing further improvements including truck staging, enhanced loading efficiencies at the rack and additional product services,” Larry Burgamy, president of Lincoln, told oil price service OPIS. l

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BIOBASED COOPERATION

Innovation and training for the biobased economy

Training center

The Ghent-Zeeland Port Area has a fairly long tradition in the storage and production of biofuels. Evidence of this is the large number of companies involved in this process, from the delivery of the raw materials by seagoing vessel all the way to processing, storage and distribution.

In addition, many energy providers have chosen to set up business in this region for the production of bio-energy. Biomass is transported from all over the world for use in the production of environmentally friendly sustainable energy.

In our attempt to make the port area a sustainable production location, we are constantly looking for opportunities for companies in our port area to make use of each other’s waste products.

You will be pleased to know that we still have plenty of space available for your sustainable investment. So why wait‌ Get in touch with the commercial department of Port of Ghent or Zeeland Seaports. They look forward to meeting you and telling you about all the possibilities the Ghent-Zeeland Port Area has to offer.

www.portofghent.be www.zeelandseaports.com biofuels international supplement

Innovation and training for the biobased economy

Pilot Plant

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Ports under tax scrutiny from European Commission The Netherlands has been required to abolish an exemption from corporate tax for six of its ports by the European Commission (EC), while Belgium and France have been told to align their taxation of ports with state aid rules.

The decision was made by the EC to ensure that all of the ports based in the Netherlands were subject to the same corporate taxation rules.

Commissioner Margrethe Vestage said: “Ports are key infrastructure for economic growth and regional development.”

“The Commission’s decisions regarding the Netherlands, Belgium and France make clear that if port operators generate profits from economic activities these should be taxed under the normal national tax laws to avoid distortions of completion” In May 2013 complaints led to the Commission asking the Netherlands to

abolish provisions exempting certain public companies from corporate tax. The Commission has viewed that both Belgium and France’s existing regimes give the ports an advantage that may breach EU state aid rules. Therefore, it has proposed measures to adapt their legislation in order to ensure public and private ports pay corporate tax on economic activities.

In Belgium, a number of sea and inland waterway ports are exempt from the general corporate income tax regime.These notably include the ports of Antwerp, Bruges, Brussels, Ostende, and others as well as along the canals in Hainaut Province and Flanders. Due to these ports being subject to a different tax regime, with a different base and tax rates, there is an overall lower level of taxation for Belgian ports as compared to other companies in the country.The same was concluded, in a separate decision, about a number ports in France, where most are fully exempt from corporation income tax. l

Liquid bulk growth for Antwerp Growth in liquid bulk has been one of the main drivers of success at the Port of Antwerp.

According to the port’s annual report for 2015, all categories of freight grew, however containers and liquid bulk showed the most growth.

Liquid bulk volumes were up 6.1% to 66,668,371 tonnes. The volume of oil derivatives rose by 4% to 47,904,167 tonnes.

Chemical growth was particularly strong at 182% however, crude oil volume was down slightly compared to the previous year and ended with 4,814,047 tonnes, a decline of 3.4%. l

Rubis reports slight storage revenue decline Overall storage revenues at Rubis Terminal for 2015 declined by 2% despite a 0.6% increase in the fourth quarter.

In the fourth quarter, the company’s Rotterdam facility delivered a strong performance with a growth of 15% in recorded revenue. The terminal experienced a 7% increase in chemicals storage while heavy fuel oil revenues increased by 3%.

The Antwerp and Ceyhan terminals recorded a growth of 2%.

In France, the petroleum business was virtually stable set in a broader French market where consumption of petroleum products was down 2%. l

Harbour with port cranes and big freight carriers in the sea port of Antwerp Belgium. Rubis’ terminal in Antwerp recorded a growth of 2%.

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Zenith Energy acquires Amsterdam terminal from BP

Eco-Energy opens new US distribution facility

Liquids and bulk terminaling company Zenith Energy has signed an agreement to acquire a liquids storage terminal facility in Amsterdam from BP.

Eco-Energy, a biofuel supply chain company, has opened a distribution facility located within its Knoxville, US, terminal complex.

The facility, which is a joint project between Eco-Energy and Kinder Morgan Southeast Terminals, will be equipped to receive tank cars daily from the CSX Railway for outbound ethanol distribution via pipeline connection and tank truck delivery to all area gasoline blending locations.

“Eco-Energy is excited to open the Knoxville facility and improve the ethanol supply chain into this growing market.

We continue to invest in downstream infrastructure and our focus continues to be centred on lowering supply chain costs for all of our customers.” stated Chadwick Conn, Eco-Energy’s vice president of distribution. l

The international liquids and bulk terminaling company is due to take

ownership of the terminal assets by the end of the first quarter 2016 following a transition process. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed.

The facility is located on the North Sea Canal within the ARA region and has a storage capacity of more than six million barrels for petroleum, ethanol, middle distillates, biodiesel, kerosene and LPG. l

Zenith Energy has made two acquisitions in the past year. The company bought Bantry Bay terminal in Ireland from Phillips in February

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biofuels storage Preventing biodiesel quality degradation through proper storage and maintenance practices

Good storage practice: ensuring high quality biodiesel

T

he extensive use of biodiesel as a component in diesel fuel or bio-based heating oil leads to increased requirements for storage and long-term stability. In a nine-month storage test about the stability of fatty acid methyl ester (FAME) from rapeseed oil under ideal and realistic conditions (Biofuels International March/April 2015), it was shown that biodiesel preserved an excellent quality if stored properly.

But what is properly stored?

What are the correct storage tank materials? Have seals for diesel fuel to be replaced? Are additivities necessary? These are only a few questions regarding biodiesel storage.

For the storage of biodiesel according to EN 14214, almost the same regulations as for fossil diesel fuel (EN 590) are valid. However, due to different properties of FAME, some special conditions in storage tanks have to be kept in mind. Because of its chemical composition, FAME has excellent solubility properties, which can cause certain problems with plastics or rubber seals and primers for sealing joints which are FAME-unstable.

In addition, bricks with a finishing mortar layer or in situ concrete should not be used for the sealing surface. Tanks and components composed of non-ferrous metals – such as copper, brass, or bronze

– should be avoided in order to prevent corrosion and the formation of metal soaps. The proper way to store biodiesel is finally determined by the quality of the stored fuel.

For a long and safe storage, the oxidation stability and water content of the biodiesel are crucial parameters.

Oxidation stability The reaction of biodiesel with oxygen from air generates radicals and peroxides. These aging products can cause damage by reacting with nonferrous metals or formation of precipitates. Therefore, a sufficient oxidation stability is a requirement for safe storage.

To ensure this stability, added antioxidants are useful and often necessary.

Besides natural antioxidants and the still widespread standard butylhydroxytoluen (BHT), there are countless different oxidation stabilisers currently available on the market. The Association Quality Management Biodiesel (AGQM) offers safety testing services for FAME antioxidants wherein the effectiveness and possible interactions with other oxidation stabilisers are examined. 44 out of 69 tested additives have passed the test successfully and are noted on the No Harm List that certifies oxidation stabilisers.

Oxidation stability should also be taken into account when considering tank cleaning. If biodiesel has

lost its stability due to “low quality goods” or wrong storage methods, it cannot be improved adequately by new additives or fillup with fresh biodiesel.

In this case an exchange and subsequent cleaning of the tank is inevitable.

The German Society for Petroleum and Coal Science and Technology (DGMK) showed in one of its projects that the oxidation stability of a B7 blend is ensured throughout the whole supply starting from refinery over transportation to storage. This is also the case for pure biodiesel B100, as demonstrated

by AGQM in 2005.

Water content FAME is inherently polar, which means biodiesel can absorb a lot of water. Water provides a comfortable habitat for micro-organisms in the form of micro-emulsions.

The micro-organisms consume FAME and produce by-products which have a negative impact on fuel quality, such as short-chain hydrocarbons and free acids.

In the worst case these acids may corrode tank materials and form metal soaps, greatly reducing the quality of the biodiesel. In addition, the micro-organisms can also produce biofilms that cause filter blocking.

Usually such serious water and micro-organism

contamination in the biodiesel and storage tank rarely occurs, as it can be prevented completely by good “housekeeping”. Water separators are often used in FAME applications, which makes fears of increased water content unfounded.

But as not all storage operators take sufficient care of their equipment, it is recommended to clean the storage tanks every two years.

Monitoring and supervision In the end, all standards and specifications have to be monitored and enforced by unannounced manufacturer sampling and round robin tests. Both are offered by companies such as the AGQM. At the same time long-term studies on storage stability and the use of FAME in heating oil and diesel fuel are necessary and currently under progress.

Following these guidelines should ensure that the quality of stored biodiesel remains excellent. The storage period can be increased by choosing the right storage tank, employing good housekeeping practices, and the correct additives. Nevertheless, the quality of the biodiesel itself plays a crucial role for basic storage stability. l For more information: This article was written by Richard Wicht, technical expert at AGQM. Visit: www.agqm-biodiesel.de

6 march/april 2016 biofuels international supplement

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Your reliable storage partner for everything liquid. biofuels international supplement

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Biofuels present problems for marine transport, handling and storage

Biofuel quality issues

I

n 2010, Minton, Treharne & Davies (MTD), a UK-based engineer consultancy, produced an article for the Carefully to Carry Advisory Committee of the UK P&I Club, in which it discussed issues relating to the marine transport, handling, and storage of biofuels. Since that time, MTD has been involved in a number of claims investigations into alleged quality issues concerning biofuel cargoes themselves, or claims resulting from the introduction of biofuels into the transport and storage infrastructure that has historically been used to move conventional fuels around the world. Six years on from the original article, it is interesting to reflect on some of the problems that have been seen, potential future issues, and the way in which problems can be investigated and mitigated.

By far the largest number of biofuel quality issues have concerned fatty acid methyl esters (FAME, otherwise called biodiesel) cargoes. One of, if not the, major challenges for parties involved in the transport and storage of FAME is the issue of preventing water contamination. FAME is hygroscopic, which means that it will readily absorb water from its surrounding environment.

The presence of high levels of water in FAME has various detrimental effects, including promoting the growth of microorganisms and increasing the likelihood of oxidation products being formed during storage.

The potential problems associated with elevated levels of water were recognised in the early days of the introduction of FAME into the transport fuels market and procedures to minimise the potential for water contamination in FAME were quickly adopted by industry.

However, despite the steps

taken by parties to try and minimise the risk of water contamination, it is inevitable that there will be circumstances in which cargoes of FAME carried by sea and stored in floating or land-based storage will become contaminated with water. It is MTD’s experience that water contamination claims are the most prevalent type of quality issue reported for FAME in storage and during shipment.

There are numerous sources of water which can cause a FAME cargo to become off-specification for water

for all parties involved to be prepared to investigate and aware of the options that are available to rectify the situation.

Investigation Even taking into account the current low oil prices, the financial implications of a cargo becoming contaminated mean that generally speaking, the parties involved wish to answer a number of key questions. Most of them can usually be boiled down to “how has this happened, how can it be fixed and who

The largest number of biofuel quality issues have concerned fatty acid methyl esters (FAME) cargoes. content, for example, sea water ingress during an oceangoing voyage, contamination with residues of cleaning water in tanks and lines, or absorption of moisture from humid air. No matter how much investment a party places in best practice preventative measures, there is always the potential for human error to cause unforeseen and eyewateringly expensive problems.

This has been exemplified by recent cases where flexible cargo and/or tank cleaning water hoses have been connected to incorrect manifolds on-board vessels and barges, resulting in significant ingress of cargo into the wrong tanks, or ingress of washing water into cargo tanks containing sound material. Whilst such instances of human error are, thankfully, reasonably rare, when quality problems do arise, it pays

is going to be financially liable for the costs?”

When considering the first part of the question – as with all investigations – reliable evidence is key.

The importance of proper, representative samples being made available for investigative analysis simply cannot be overstated. In this regard, appointing a reliable, trustworthy inspection company to carry out the required quality (and quantity) control at all stages in the cargo movement should be a priority.

Whilst such services are not offered by MTD, the company, and by extension, all of the parties involved in a quality dispute, are usually implicitly reliant upon the inspectors who have drawn samples throughout the cargo movement having performed their role properly.

What appears to be the present trend of cost cutting in respect of routine cargo inspection is ill-advised and will usually lead to bigger, more expensive dispute situations when the inevitable problems arise.

When suspected quality issues do arise, the importance of obtaining representative samples of the affected cargo becomes magnified.

The samples are used to assess mitigation options and, ultimately, to allow the interested parties to ascertain the cause of the quality issue.

Often, off-specification cargoes are not homogeneous (think of sediments that settle to the bottom of storage tanks) and “routine” sampling may not give a true representation of the overall quality of a cargo.

As such, consideration must be given to the type of product, the nature of the quality problem, and the particular storage and sampling arrangements in place at the time.

For this reason it is always recommended that samples are drawn “jointly”, with experts acting for all interested parties in attendance to oversee the sampling process.

This should ensure that samples are drawn correctly and agreed to be reliable and suitable for further analysis to assess quality issues. Key concerns include ensuring that samples are drawn using appropriate sampling equipment, that the correct type of samples are drawn (for example, upper, middle, lower, and dead bottom samples), and that the samples are stored in suitable sample containers under appropriate storage conditions.

Whilst modern analytical methodologies allow very low levels of contamination to

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with a quality problem, such as a cargo off-specification for water content, that a quick and easy fix would be to sell the cargo at a discount.

However, there are other ways of dealing with quality issues for FAME (and other biofuel) cargoes that may end up being significantly more cost effective than a simple discounted sale.

Preventing water contimination is a major challenge for FAME handlers

Present and future concerns

be identified and quantified (and in the case of water contaminations, it should be possible to identify the character of the water, that is, whether it is salt water, fresh water etc. and thereby get an indication of the likely source), the old maxim of “rubbish in, rubbish out” applies as much for biofuel cargoes as it does for conventional petroleum products. No matter how sophisticated (and expensive) the analytical equipment used to test a product, if the samples to be tested are not representative, then the analytical results will be of limited, if any, value.

In terms of the relevance for biofuels, and in particular FAME, the recent downward trend in oil prices has meant that significant volumes of cargo, including biofuels or biofuel containing product, has been placed into long-term storage. The long termstorage may be shore-based or, due to a paucity of free shore-side storage tanks, in so called “floating storage”.

Generally speaking, it is far more difficult to adopt “good housekeeping” procedures for product in floating storage.

It is considered likely that once product begins to be

lifted again following periods of extended storage, unless proper checks have been made to monitor product quality, the more sensitive and difficult to handle bioderived materials will give rise to more than normal numbers of quality claims. It should be in all parties’ interests to ensure that their respective positions are protected as much as possible by adopting a rigorous approach to cargo quality monitoring. In this regard, the guidelines produced by industry bodies such as the Energy Institute (EI) in relation to best practice for inspectors dealing with FAME cargoes should be used as a reference for all parties involved in this important role.

Mitigation One of the key considerations when assessing product quality claims relates to the mitigation strategies pursued by the cargo interests.

Continuing on the theme of water contamination of FAME, recurring incidents have allowed investigations to be made into the possible ways of dealing with the problem.

It is often the first thought of the trading company faced

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There are a number of recent developments that bring the continuing impact of the introduction of FAME into the transport fuel market into sharp focus. One area where change is afoot is the aviation fuels industry, which for a number of nervous years has lived with the risk of jet fuel becoming contaminated with FAME, due to the use of multi-product sea vessels and land conveyances (railcars, pipelines, etc.) being used to transport both jet fuel and diesel, which may contain FAME (or, less commonly, pure FAME).

The DEF STAN 91-91 jet fuel specification was updated in 2015 to increase the allowable FAME concentration in jet fuel from a maximum of 5ppm to a maximum of 50ppm. In the next few years, it is expected that the limit will be further increased to a maximum of 100ppm. These increases in the specification limits should, in theory, reduce the risk of jet fuel becoming offspecification for FAME content as a result of contamination arising on-board vessels, within storage terminals, or in multi-product pipelines. Such contaminations in the past have led to expensive claims due to the significant costs involved in downgrading jet fuel to, for example, gasoil.

Moving from the aviation fuels industry to the marine fuels market, the Draft International Standard (DIS) 8217, revising ISO 8217:2012, is now out for balloting,

suggesting that the sixth edition of the marine fuels specification might be ready for publication later on in 2016.

The draft edition of the standard introduces a number of changes from the present edition, the most notable of which is the addition of a new set of distillate grade fuels containing biofuels. The new grades allow blends of conventional diesel with up to 7% by volume FAME. The International Council on Combustion Engines (CIMAC) have released guidelines for ship owners and operators on how to manage distillate fuels containing up to 7% by volume FAME. Whilst the new set of distillate fuel grades can contain these higher levels of FAME, it remains the case that certain of the other distillate grades can only contain “de minimis” levels of FAME. Summing up Predicting where the biofuels market will lead in the coming years is not easy, but it is difficult to see beyond a situation where first and second generation biofuels form a larger part of global fuel usage. It is likely that the introduction of new biofuels will bring challenges to industry, just as the introduction of first generation fuels has caused challenges previously and continues to do so today.

Whilst it remains the case that many of the “best practices” that have served the petroleum industry well over the years should be applied to biofuels, the different characteristics of FAME in particular mean that a reasoned approach, based upon sound technical data and reliable evidence, is required to investigate and resolve quality issues. l For more information: This article was written by Richard Minton, director at Minton, Treharne & Davies. Visit: www.minton.co.uk

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Pricing reporting agency Platts has changed its Free on Board Rotterdam T2 ethanol assessments. What does this mean for European ethanol traders?

All on board?

By Liz Gyekye

P

230.500 m3 storage capacity for flammable and non-flammable liquids 163 tanks, 15 different tank sizes ranging from 156 m3 to 6.600 m3 40.000 m3 stainless steel tank capacity in 2015 Four jetties to handle barges and seagoing vessels with max. draught of 9.30 mtr and 22.000 mt DWT 30 (un)loading bays for tank trucks, tank containers, flexitanks and rail tank cars Heated and insulated storage tanks First come, First serve (no slotplanning) Nitrogen supplies and mixing possibilities of Chemicals, Biofuels, Lube Oils 24/7 service for vessels/barges/rail tank cars

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latts publishes several fuel ethanol price benchmarks tailored to specific markets in the US, Brazil, Europe and Asia that are used by the industry to manage risk in this growing market and along the entire transport fuels chain.

Following market feedback last year, it announced that it would change its Free on Board (FOB) Rotterdam T2 ethanol assessments to reflect a FOB Rotterdam basis, with loading options in Amsterdam and Antwerp effective from 1 April, 2016. Platt’s Market On Closure (MOC) price assessment is used by sellers and buyers each day to do business.

The INCOTERM [a series of pre-defined commercial terms published by the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC)] used by Platts for their MOC is currently based on a FOB Rotterdam assessment.

So, what is the background to the story? “Players were virtually obliged to rent tanks in Rotterdam in order to be able to participate on the MOC,” Frederik Laumans, director of Netherlands-based biodiesel terminal operator N.W.B., tells Biofuels International. “With the tank terminal operator Vopak (Netherlands-based firm) having virtually a monopolistic position in the port of Rotterdam for the storage and handling of ethanol, market participants were eager to have more options to buy and sell their ethanol.”

Last year, he says that N.W.B., in close cooperation

with the Port of Amsterdam, asked Platts to consider a broader price range. He adds: “In line with other biofuels commodities, the MOC price assessment would include the Amsterdam and Antwerp ports.

After gathering information and obtaining positive feedback from the market on this change, Platts recently announced that as of April 1, 2016, their MOC will show FOB ARA.” He says that this new change will enable the market players to use terminals in both Amsterdam and Antwerp to store their ethanol. Laumans adds that this will help to “provide more liquidity in their supply chain requirements with a level playing field competition between terminals that store and handle ethanol in all three ports”.

Laumans maintains: “Amsterdam — the world’s largest gasoline and diesel port in the world — is uniquely well positioned to serve the biofuels and specifically the ethanol market with stateof-art infrastructure and very good connections to the European hinterland, serving as a gateway for hydrocarbon fuels as well as biofuels.”

Commenting on the new Platt’s price assessment and in response to claims that Vopak had a monopolistic position in the port of Rotterdam, a Vopak spokeswoman says: “A broader FOB assessment is positive for our customers. Vopak has terminals in Amsterdam, Rotterdam and Antwerp.” l

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Don’t miss your chance to appear in the May/June issue of Biofuels International magazine

BONUS DISTRIBUTION:

Editorial topics will include:

ISO Datagro New York Sugar & Ethanol Conference

• Regional focus: Ethanol in North America

ILTA EUBCE FEW

• First & second generation ethanol

107th AOCS Annual Meeting & Expo

• Enzymes

Oleofuels

• Ethanol drying

AOCS Annual Meeting

• Heat exchangers • Plant automation • Fractionation

Deadline for artwork: 21st March 2016

For editorial suggestions contact Liz Gyekye liz@woodcotemedia.com +44 (0) 208 687 4183 For advertising information and prices contact Matthew Clifton +44 203 551 5751 matthew@biofuels-news.com North America contact Matt Weidner +1 610 486 6525 mtw@weidcom.com

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biofuels biofuels storage Biofuels storage can expect to grow considerably in the next decade and so it is increasingly important to manage health and safety risks in the workplace

Working on tankers: Safety in storage

T

he biofuels industry is full of risks. There are risks associated with handling products and risks connected with using and repairing equipment.

Loadtec Engineered Systems was set up almost 20 years ago primarily to sell loading arms, but increasingly, the company is supplying total solutions that make a difference to the whole working environment.

In 1999 the Chemical Industries Association (CIA) issued a publication called ‘Working on top of chemical tankers’ (last updated in 2012). This went on to form

an important part of the Work at Heights Regulations introduced in 2005.

Section three of the publication states addressed key themes including accident prevention, hierarchy of control measures and ‘safety as an efficiency’.

Accident prevention Where working on top of tankers or tank containers is deemed necessary, the risks to consider will include falls from a height, access and egress, contact with product and exposure to fumes.

The multi-modal system has become the gold standard in ensuring operator safety when accessing tanker tops, providing complete ease of movement on top of the tanker with very little risk of falling

To prevent falls from tankers, the following hierarchy of control measures need to be considered: • Eliminate the need to access tops of tankers.

• Provision of a loading/ unloading gantry.

• Consideration of tanker design features such as ladders, walkways and collapsible handrails.

• Portable ladders with platforms.

• Installation of fall arrest systems.

Hierarchy of control measures Hierarchy of control measures – Four simple words that tell you how you need to prioritise your thinking. The hierarchy works on the basis that if no method of preventing the fall exists in the first category, you proceed to the next category and then on to the next and finally, when there is nothing that can be done to prevent the fall; you can,

with a clear conscience, install a fall arrest system.

Let’s be clear. Fall prevention does just that: it prevents the fall from taking place. Fall arrest hopes to minimise the consequence of the fall that has already taken place.

The harness and wire systems of fall arrest are totally reliant on the competence or willingness of the operator to fit the harness correctly. The consequence of not doing that is very serious.

As the director of a terminal or plant operator, your primary corporate aim is to provide a safe and clean working environment for your operators and the public. To do this your obligation is to employ the best technology and working practices. All companies need to understand that safety is not necessarily a cost.

Safety as an efficiency A safe and clean working environment promotes loyalty, a sense of worth – the

Example of how Loadtec supplies a complete solution

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The bulk fluid transfer and fall prevention systems Loadtec supplies together as a complete solution is becoming more popular as operator safety becomes an increasingly important issue

company is actually looking after me – and, consequently the operator looks at how he can return that investment in him. A safe system can also reduce the manpower needed to undertake some tasks.

Safety is not about constraint. Done correctly, it provides a working environment where choice is restricted, but movement is not.

The operator, faced with a repetitive task that involves manual input, will always try to find short cuts; ways of saving their precious time; reducing their inconvenience and generally making their lives easier.

The layout for a fall arrest system may seem cheapest in the short term. However, the constant monitoring required ensuring all workers practise as they ought to soon see costs start to escalate immediately. The longterm cost of a system that needs constant monitoring will, over time, far outweigh the capital savings made in its initial selection.

There are two types of safety system: passive or active.

Active involves the operator

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Loading arm tanker enclosure truck

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undertaking tasks, before he can do the job he is there to do. These can be key interlocks; closing barriers; moving and positioning mobile access carts; or putting on harnesses and physically climbing up the back end of the tanker. Changing weather conditions and the monotony of the repetitive tasks will soon have your worker looking for easier ways to get the job done quicker.

Passive is where the operator gets out of his truck, walks up an easy staircase, presses a button and walks out onto the tanker top. No harnesses to put on; no slippery tanker barrels to walk on; no constraints; only a secure cage to surround the working area to prevent him falling; time saved is about five or maybe ten minutes. Stress level is zero. He doesn’t have to move the tanker because everything has been designed to eliminate that extra risk. He gets the job done quickly, safely and without someone having to watch him with the consequential associated costs.

Of course there are degrees of safety. The more you spend the safer it gets.

But ask yourself this: Which safety system would you rather be on?

The bulk fluid handling industries are very diverse with equally diverse needs; and still have a long way to go. Until safety and efficiency are inextricably linked, then we will continue to have unnecessary accidents. l

For more information: This article was written by Alec Keeler, managing director at Loadtec Engineered Systems.

Visit: www.loadtec.co.uk

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15 - 17 MARCH 2016 - ANTWERP EXPO, ANTWERP

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A new hydrothermal liquefaction pilot plant for the conversion of wet biomass streams into bio-oil is set to cause waves in the industry.

Hydrothermal liquefaction of biomass: a pilot plant

the BioValue brand, involving other Danish universities and several international industrial partners, has been set up to further the development of the biorefining industry.

In this context, a unique pilot-scale centre has been established, in which a wide range of biorefining processes can be developed and demonstrated from kg to

Biomass

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Current methods of biomass processing and conversion generally involve extensive pre-treatment together with energy-intensive physical size reduction

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hilst a wide range of sustainable solutions for our general energy demand are becoming increasingly available, there still exists the need for new and ever more efficient methods of providing sustainable liquid fuels for transport as well as carbon-based chemicals and materials. In other words, we are moving from an energy challenge towards a carbon challenge. Converting biomass into such value added products may provide an environmentally friendly and sustainable production, which is immediately compatible with current infrastructure availability or requiring minimal modification.

The aim of a sustainable bio-based economy with minimal waste can potentially be achieved by implementing a carbon dioxide recycling scheme. This is the central idea behind a biorefinery, where several process units — including thermochemical conversion, fermentation, and biogas facilities as well as a collection of pre- and post-treatment equipment — are used to produce various bulk commodities, such as biofuels, bioplastics, and higher value feed and speciality chemicals.

The Biobase initiative at Aarhus University (AU) in collaboration with a large national programme under

tonne scale. Existing facilities include a wide range of reactors, fermenters, largescale extruders, decanters, separators, and so forth.

Hydrothermal liquefaction (HTL) of biomass forms the overall key element in this facility and provides the opportunity to fulfil part of the overall biorefinery objective by being able to convert non-food plant/ biomaterial into liquid fuels and value added chemicals.

Hydrothermal liquefaction One of the main aims of the HTL plant is to demonstrate the techno-economic viability of producing a synthetic crude oil suitable for integration into a conventional oil refinery or similar upgrading process.

HTL is a thermochemical process in which biomass is subjected to temperatures and pressures near the critical point of water (374°C, 220Atm) in order to promote a process in which a large part of the oxygen in the biomass is eliminated in the form of CO2 Time and water, whilst retaining most of the energy content.

The main product from mixed biomass is a black viscous oil not unlike fossil crude oil. In fact, this process mimics in many ways the terrestrial process in which biomass is converted to fossil fuel. A significant difference though is the timeframe.

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Position reactor A time smoothed velocity profile of the oscillatory pumping mechanism

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Table 1: Basic operating values for the HTL pilot facility

Feedstock capacity

20-60 l/hr

Conversion temperature 250 - 450°C Conversion pressure

Average flowrate Locate flowrate

P R O D UC TIO

Whereas the terrestrial process takes place over millions of years, the HTL process is completed in less onomythan 30 minutes. The range of operating values of the plant are shown in table 1, although operating just below the critical point seems to be favourable from a technoeconomic viewpoint.

Current methods of biomass

200-350 bar

• Energy efficient: Heat recovery is a key aspect of the plant with about 80% heat recovery currently achieved.

Basic operating values for the HTL pilot facility

Novel technology

processing and conversion generally involve extensive pre-treatment together with energy intensive physical size reduction, such as milling or threshing. The AU HTL facility has been designed from scratch with an engineering approach taking in scalability and energy efficiency as key parameters. The plant offers several advantages that make it a competitive research and demonstration facility: • Safe: Corrosion resistant materials (UNS6025) and high pressure (700/1400 bar) design together with several safety systems allows for safe operation • Customisable to feedstock: Particle tolerant

Several advanced technologies are employed in the Biobase HTL pilot facility in order to promote energy efficiency and scalability at higher temperatures and pressures required for economically efficient biomass conversion.

feeding systems and a uniform tubular flow pattern throughout the plant allow a wide range of feedstocks to be processed. The flow characteristics (velocity/ residence time) can be adjusted depending on feedstock composition.

• Continuous plug flow operation: Continuous operation has significant economic benefits and results in a better defined thermal conversion process.

• Scale-up design: Scalability is built into the design and studies have supported direct 1000fold scalability which compares favourably with other proposed designs.

A view of the pilot plant facility excluding pre-treatment equipment

Thixotropic fluid flow in plug flow configuration The high viscosity and thixotropic (shear thinning) nature of the biomass slurry is a significant challenge for biorefining processes. The slow flow needed to obtain sufficient residence time in a not exceedingly long reactor results in very high viscosities, reduced thermal transfer, and smeared flow profiles. This

slurry requires a significant pressure to enable it to flow as a liquid through the reactor and heat exchanger units. Contradicting this high velocity requirement is the need for a long reactor residence time in order to maximise the conversion of organic components within the biomass feed material. In order to achieve both requirements, the flow is periodically reversed using a patent pending hydraulic design so that the overall average flow velocity is fairly low but the local velocity is high.

Heat exchange via heat clamps The resulting pipe thicknesses and other mechanical design considerations required due to the high operating pressure make it difficult to use conventional heat exchange methods, such as tube-in-shell and tube-in-tube designs.

The HTL pilot plant makes use of AU’s design of heat clamp, where, for example, the reactor product is used to pre-heat the reactor feed. The heat clamps are made from special cast iron selected to have exactly the same thermal expansion as the nickel alloy used for the pressure tubes with the added ability of being able to insert electrical heating cartridges if required.

Pressure relief system The plant uses a parallel hydraulic pressure release setup, which is linked to the flow control system in order to reduce the pressure from the HTL reactor to atmospheric conditions, thus avoiding constrictions on the back pressure valve, which is prone to degradation. From here, the oil product has its water content removed and is sent for storage.

Advanced safety and control systems The operating conditions, which are typically just below the critical point of water, mean that the entire plant is designed

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to be intrinsically safe with built-in ventilation, warning alarms, and safety screens.

The plant includes a modern automated control system utilising various flow and temperature sensors together with actuators for reliable and safe plant operation.

Results and outlook Initial results from the Biobase HTL pilot plant look promising. Biocrude oils have been produced from various biomass sources and new experiments on selected biomass fractions, such as lignin, are underway. The commissioning of the new HTL pilot plant provides the opportunity of demonstrating a technically and economically viable biomass conversion process. Further work will involve characterising

the oil product as well as developing the necessary upgrading processes, while also identifying and testing alternative biomass feedstocks. Since the HTL unit is just one part of an extensive biorefining pilot facility, holistic optimisation of several biorefining processes in cooperation with existing BioValue/Biobase partners is a unique opportunity. AU welcomes new partners to participate in the endeavour, as the facility has 100 years of fossil refining technologies to catch up with and only a few years to implement a more sustainable approach. l For more information: This article was written by Ib Johanssen, associate professor at the department of engineering, Aarhus University, Dale More, MA student at Aarhus University and PhD student Bjørn S. Kilsgaard. Visit: www.au.dk and www.BioValue.dk

The Biocrude obtained from the HTL pilot plant (300°C, 200 bar, residence time of 17 minutes at 15% dry matter content)

FACT BOX AARHUS UNIVERSITY (AU) was founded in 1928. It has 37,500 students; about 1,900 PhD students – of which one in four has a foreign nationality – and close to 700 postdoctoral scholars together with 8,000 employees. In recent years AU has been moving up the most important university ranking lists. In 2014 the university was number 68 at the Leiden Ranking, number 96 at the QS World University Ranking, and number 153 of 17,000 universities on the Times Higher Education World University Ranking.

The Department of Engineering, Section for Biological and Chemical Engineering (BCE) has a strong background in bio-resource technology and has a wide range of teaching and research activities directed towards a biobased society. In particular , BCE has significant activities within the general theme of bio-refining including biomass handling, protein separation, hydrothermal treatment, process engineering, separation technologies, fermentation, biogas upgradation as well as energy and mineral recovery.

ON THE MOVE TO GET THINGS MOVING.

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biofuels events Upcoming biofuels events

MARCH 2016 9-11 The Second International Biofuels Conference

Cartagena, Colombia

14-17

World Bio Markets

Amsterdam, the Netherlands

15-17

StocExpo 2016

Antwerp, Belgium

APRIL 2016 13-14 Oils and Fats India 2016

Hyderabad, India

20-21

Berlin, Germany

European Algae Biomass

MAY 2016 1-4 107th AOCS Annual Meeting & Expo

Salt Lake City, Utah, US

2-5

Alternative Clean Transportation (ACT) Expo

California, US

18

ISO Datagro New York Sugar & Ethanol Conference

New York, US

23-26

ILTA

Houston, Texas, US

25-28

Alternative Fuels World Fair

Bologna, Italy

JUNE 2016 20-23 Fuel Ethanol Workshop

Milwaukee, US

21-22

Oleofuels 2016

Liverpool, UK

26-29

Algal Biomas, Biofuels and Bioproducts

San Diego, US

JULY 2016 6-8 BioFuelNet Advanced Biofuels Symposium

Vancouver, Canada

SEPTEMBER 2016 21-22 9th Biofuels International Conference 2016

Ghent, Belgium

27-28

Marina Bay Sands, Singapore

Tank Storage Asia

OCTOBER 2016 18-20

9th Annual EFIB 2016

Glasgow, Scotland

NOVEMBER 2016 16-17

Tank Storage Germany

Hamburg, Germany

Biofuels International magazine (ISSN 1754-2170) is published six times a year in January, March, May, July, September, November by Woodcote Media, Marshall House, 124 Middleton Road, Morden, Surrey, SM4 6RW.

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Ghent Marriott, Belgium 20-22 September 2016

9th Biofuels International Conference & Expo

‘Attending the 8th Biofuels International Conference was a valuable experience. Leading representatives from the biofuels industry discussed the most relevant topics for the business, bringing useful insights from different parts of the world.

I definitely recommend it.’

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Key speakers include: Spyros J. Kiartzis, Director Alternative Energy Sources and New Technologies, HELLENIC PETROLEUM S.A Paolo Corvo, Head of Business Development Biofuels & Derivatives, Clariant Gudbrand Rødsrud, Technology Director, Borregaard AS

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