Oil pre-treatment technologies for HVO production
The pre-treatment plants need to be designed to achieve the inlet specifications for the HVO unit. These specifications are mostly imposed by the HVO technology provider. Desmet has experience with the specifications of the main providers of the HVO technologies.
Moreover, our pre-treatment plants are always designed in a way that the plant can handle multiple feedstocks and feedstock blends.
In the basic configuration, the pre-treatment plant will consist of only two process sections:
- Step 1: Acid degumming with washing
- Step 2: Dry pre-treatment with bleaching
The first step removes the bulk of the impurities, P and metals while the second step allows to achieve the very low levels for P (<3 ppm) and total metals (<10 ppm) that are required by the HVO licensors.
In most of the cases, the basic configuration is sufficient to treat most of the vegetable oils, UCO and other reasonable quality oils and fats and blends thereof.
However, the plants can the further customized in function of the feedstock mix that the client is considering, and which can be different from country to country in function of the locally available feedstocks. To do this the basic configuration can be completed with additional sections to achieve additional cleaning possibilities and to optimize the performance of the plant.
As possible options, the following sections can be added:
- Enzymatic degumming – for plants working mainly on vegetable oils (rape, soya) to improve the yield of the degumming process
- Oil clarification – for plants working with high impurities containing feedstocks
- PE removal – for plants working on feedstocks with high PE content (low quality animal fats)
- Double bleaching – for HVO plants that work on feedstocks with very high P & metal content and/or require extreme low levels for P (<1 ppm) and metals (<5 ppm total) – reduced bleaching earth consumption
- FFA stripping – for HVO plants that are limited to a max. FFA (for example <5 w%) due to metallurgy of existing installations (revamping projects)
From the early stage of a project, Desmet develops together with the client the set-up of the pre-treatment plants in function of the available feedstocks. Moreover, based on lab and pilot scale testing, the available feedstocks can further be evaluated to assure the right configuration of the pre-treatment plant.
With several high capacity pre-treatment plants in operation in the US and Europe, Desmet has gained additional experience how to design the plants in order to achieve the best performance and also to assure the best availability of the plants. Our plant design is continuously updated to incorporate the latest findings.
For more info, please contact:
Introduction
Hydrotreated Vegetable Oil (HVO) commonly referred to as ‘renewable diesel’, is produced via catalytic hydroprocessing of oils and fats, consisting of paraffinic hydrocarbons. HVO is fully compatible with petroleum diesel and can also be upgraded for use as ‘Sustainable Aviation Fuel’ (SAF).
HVO can be produced from a wide variety of raw materials containing triglycerides and fatty acids. Vegetable oils, animal fats and a wide range of waste and by-products from oils and fats processing, like used cooking oils (UCO), fatty acid distillates, acid oils…
Desmet advantages in HVO pre-treatment
We supply a proven, highly reliable and efficient process that can accept almost any feedstock and will provide you an in-spec product suitable for HVO processing.
- A Reliable Partner
- 75+ years of experience in Oil & Fats processes and 20+ years in pre-treatment plants for biofuels
- 125+ plants up and running for classical biodiesel (FAME) and 10+ HVO pre-treatment plants in operation or under construction
- Proven technology for HVO pre-treatment in operation since 2012
- Trusted partner of major HVO producing companies in USA, Europe and all over the world, serviced by our worldwide network of offices.
- Flexible and Reliable Technology
- Plants are designed to pre-treat a wide range of raw materials and blends
- In-house R&D Competence Centre fully equipped for testing of new feedstocks and for process optimisation
- Consistently clean feedstock to avoid downtime and to protect the precious HVO catalysts
- Plants with high capacity range (up to 5000 tpd and more) and with high availability (>95%) to meet your market expectations
The Methylester Distillation section (or also known as : Methyl Ester Distillation or Biodiesel Distillation) is designed to process crude Methylester to produce the main purified product with a very low content of impurities in order to meet all the international standards for Biodiesel quality.
Other by-products from Methylester Distillation section are the light ends leaving from the top of distillation column. The heavy ends and pitch that can be recovered from the pitch squeezing system available in dual option : Kettle Reboiler or Desmet’s Rising Evaporation System for higher Sulphur content feedstock, lowest Monoglyceride content of distilled Methylester and improved yield.
The light ends and heavy ends can either be sent to storage with a dedicated line or be mixed with the distilled Methylester thanks to our unique rising evaporation system, while the pitches are directly sent to storage to be further utilized.
Desmet advantages in Methylester Distillation section
- Higher Sulphur content feedstock
- Lowest Monoglyceride content
- Improved yield
- Minimum energy consumption that can be achieved by multiple heat recovery equipment and by low pressure steam generation
One of our recently commissioned biodiesel distillations have been placed in Paraguay, Inpasa. Thanks to our continuous R&D and years of industrial experience, our biodiesel distillation purifies crude Methylester to meet the highest quality standard.
For more info on our successful installation on Methylester Distillation Plant, get our complete reference list.
The distillation is based on a packed tower where the glycerine is distilled, fractionated to separate both heavy and light boiling impurities and condensed.
Yellowish glycerine is condensed in a separate scrubber. Deodorisation can be supplied according to the material being processed. Refining is continuous on three in line bleachers. In case of spent lyes or bio-diesel glycerine a salt squeezing section is added.
Introduction
During storage in tank farm, methyl ester final product quality could be negatively affected by the presence of some contaminants, already contained in the raw material fed to biodiesel plant. These components, identified mainly to be sterol glucosides, causes precipitation problems (e.g., accumulation in downstream equipment of production line, filter plugging in diesel engine) when stored for a certain time at ambient temperature.
Advantages
The Desmet Methyl Ester Cold Clarification Unit is designed to reduce the biodiesel Total Contamination in order to meet standard specification requirement (except of cold test CFPP and other parameters depending on feedstock and not influenced by transesterification process).
This technology allows removing the haze and decreasing contaminant quantity without using washing water for centrifugal separation minimizing the waste water effluents.