IncBio to supply 75,000 tpy biodiesel plant to Colombia

Portugal-based IncBio, an engineering company and specialist in fully automated industrial ultrasonic biodiesel plants, has secured an agreement to design and build a 75,000 tonne per year biodiesel plant for Biocosta Green Energy in Santa Marta, Colombia.

The facility will produce biodiesel directly from crude palm oil blended with palm acid oil and palm fatty acid distillate (PFAD) up to a total of 25% FFA. It will include pre-treatment, acid esterification with IncBio's solid catalyst technology, transesterification, dry wash using ion exchange resin and biodiesel distillation. It will incorporate IncBio's ultrasonic technology in all steps of the plant in order to produce the highest quality biodiesel at the lowest possible cost.

The plant will use local, sustainable palm oil as feedstock. IncBio expects the plant to be started up in May 2016.

José Marques, CEO of IncBio, says: 'The client has awarded this contract to IncBio because our unique crude vegetable oil to biodiesel process has proven to be the most cost effective in both CAPEX and OPEX terms. By using ultrasonic technology we can significantly reduce the amount of catalyst and reagents required in all steps of the process, compared to traditional technologies, whilst producing the highest quality Biodiesel, with yields that set a benchmark in the industry.

'Using our unique multi-feedstock technology, industrial units are able to convert a wide range of raw materials with up to 100% FFA into high quality biodiesel, exceeding the strict standards of EN14214 and ASTM D6751. The range of feedstock our plants are able to process includes crude vegetable oils, waste materials and by-products such as used cooking oil, animal fats, distilled FFAD, PFAD, trap grease oil, etc. Our process is revolutionising the way the biodiesel market is evolving, by ensuring complete flexibility of feedstock, helping struggling plants back onto profitability.'