By Ron Kotrba, from www.biodieselmagazine.com
Methes Energies Canada Inc. is holding a grand opening ceremony for its new 50 MMly (13 MMgy) multifeedstock biodiesel facility in Sombra, Ontario, Canada, on Aug. 10, a date known to many as International Biodiesel Day.
While the facility will be able to process many different types of feedstocks, Nicholas Ng, president of Methes Energies, said the primary feedstocks converted at the plant will be used cooking oil and beef or pork fat.
The company bought the property a few years ago, Ng said, and it had been dealing with retrofitting the infrastructure onsite to work for biodiesel production. He said the company also had to wait for the Canadian government to approve its application for the biodiesel production incentive. “Approval came in December,” he said, adding that this was when Methes Energies started building the process facility.
Methes Energies designed and built the processor in house based on its Denami 600 platform, only scaled up. The plant features methanol recovery, continuous flow production and a small footprint.
“The footprint is smaller than most,” Ng said. “Our 13 MMgy plant fits in a building of 2,000 to 2,500 square feet.”
The plant is automated and employs 18 people, but Ng said Methes Energies will be adding a couple of more staff members once it hits full production.
He said the facility will meet all ASTM specs, even the new No.1-B grade of biodiesel’s 0.40 percent monoglyceride limit. He said preliminary production test runs show the fuel comes in at about 0.20 percent monos. “We do that through a two-stage reaction and we monitor the product closely, making sure we hit equilibrium in reaction,” he told Biodiesel Magazine. “You can’t hit it too hard though, or it will go the other way.”
The ceremony is Aug. 10 from 11:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m.
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