by Ron Kotrba (Biodiesel Magazine) Biodiesel Magazine spotlights eight companies—four process technology providers, two commodity firms, a blending equipment manufacturer and an adsorbent supplier—forging new paths in their respective fields.
WWS Trading
For more than 25 years, WWS Trading has been a family-owned commodity merchandising firm buying and selling fats, oils and proteins.
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Third Coast Commodities
Third Coast Commodities was founded in 2013 by Paul Dickerson. Then Dan Weiss came on board. “They came out of the trenches,” says Rob McHugh, a Third Coast junior trader. “And me, I learned to make fuel from used cooking oil 10 years ago and operated a small collection company, Chicago Biofuels, working with Loyola University Chicago’s biodiesel program.” This boots-on-the-ground experience and early work with Loyola allowed Third Coast to build solid relationships with vendors, customers, and students, graduates and faculty of Loyola University Chicago’s Institute of Environmental Sustainability.
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Air Liquide Engineering & Construction
Air Liquide Engineering & Construction has been instrumental in oleochemical and biodiesel plant development over the years. In 2007, Air Liquide acquired Lurgi Group and its decades of development in oils and fats processing technologies. The firm has delivered more than 300 extraction and refining facilities, ranging from 100 tons per day (tpd) to 6,000 tpd.
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RPS
After engineering and building 18 biodiesel plants with Jatrodiesel, Rahul Bobbili decided to go a different way and invest in his own vision. RPS-Renewable Process Solutions was born. “My vision is to diversify and give customers options,” Bobbili says. “Every plant is looking at how to gain value from products they’re producing.”
When Bobbili formed RPS, Calgren Renewable Fuels’ biodiesel project in Pixley, California—a 5 MMgy supercritical biodiesel plant co-located next to its 57 MMgy ethanol refinery—was given a choice to continue construction with RPS.
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All-Line Equipment
In March 2001, after nearly 20 years working in the petroleum business, Steve Disselhorst founded All-Line Equipment Co. Soon after, Steve’s brother Scott joined the company, bringing his military discipline and computer savviness to the table.
When ultra-low sulfur diesel was mandated, additives became essential to improve lubricity, keep injectors clean and provide better fuel economy. “All these additive companies needed to sell product without over-additizing and wasting money,” Steve says. “Tracking this became a new problem. Big terminals had super-complicated systems, but at the smaller retail level there weren’t many options. We developed our system to fill a void.” This naturally evolved into biodiesel blending. “With the tax credit, biodiesel blending became pretty lucrative and people wanted solutions,” Steve says.
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BDI
Biodiesel producers continue to rely more on waste-based feedstock, but the nature of these degraded materials means varying degrees of impurities and significant problems in phase separation, resulting in emulsions and yield losses.
After pioneering advancements in the waste-to-biodiesel industry for more than two decades, BDI-BioEnergy International has developed a novel method to characterize feedstock behavior. With grant funding from the EU’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation program, BDI’s biofuels research and development expert Robert Raudner set out to develop a simple but effective phase separation test for biodiesel feedstock. The starting point was the existing ISO 6614 method for petroleum products, but the mixing in this method is too intense, inhibiting phase separation.
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Saola Energy
…Saola Energy is an up-and-coming technology company in the renewable fuels space with its roots in WB Services, whose technologies were avant-garde and bolstered by (Dean) Camper’s extensive hydrotreating experience in the oil industry and Ph.D. in chemical engineering. Saola Energy has an exclusive agreement to provide engineering for integrated biodiesel plants co-located at ethanol refineries, which is a patented process now owned by Rayeman Elements.
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Saola Energy’s services range from plant evaluations, debottlenecking and mass-balance studies, to engineering, project management and complete general contracting services, as well as plant operations.
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For projects co-located at ethanol refineries, Saola Energy is engaged on two fronts: enzymatic biodiesel processing and renewable diesel production.
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Imerys
With 18,300 employees and more than 4.5 billion euros in annual revenue, Imerys is a French multinational company specializing in the production and processing of industrial and advanced minerals. Nearly a year ago, Imerys hired Chris Abrams, a renowned expert in chemical adsorbents for biodiesel applications. Abrams has spent 25 years working in chemical adsorbents, with 19 of those focused on biodiesel applications.
Abrams recalls how the dry-washing term for biodiesel first came about.