Posted Oct. 4, 2010

BDI-BioEnergy International AG recently won a contract to upgrade Altorricon, Spain-based Aragon SL, a biodiesel plant that began operating in 2008 designed to process virgin oils, with an installed production capacity of 100,000 metric tons (about 30 million gallons) per year. The order is worth around €4.6 million ($6.3 million USD). The upgrade will allow the plant to utilize multiple feedstock such as cooking oil and animal fats for the production of high quality biodiesel meeting the European Standard EN 14214.

The operator has selected the upgrade of the system with the patented BDI's multifeedstock technology to process locally available raw materials such as waste cooking oil while increasing operational efficiencies. This corresponds to the changing market situation, and the trend toward producers leveraging more waste products to produce biodiesel. BDI states its system is already meeting the EU criteria for next-generation biofuels in terms of sustainability and carbon reduction.

Of the feedstock the plant will be able to process once the upgrade is complete, Wilhelm Hammer, CEO of BDI, said, "This is not the food of the poor, but the waste of the rich."

The scope of the contract includes engineering, installation and commissioning, in addition to all of the process steps for distillation, and steel work and associated equipment, and seamless integration into the existing system. The technology for the distillation is built in cooperation with the German BDI subsidiary UIC GmbH, a leader in short-path distillation.

Completion of the turnkey system is planned for September 2011.

SOURCE: BDI-BIOENERGY INTERNATIONAL AG