Business Briefs

LT Industries has released Near Infrared (NIR) analyzers designed to meet biodiesel production and quality testing needs worldwide. The company says its newly updated Parafuel Biodiesel Analyzer provides comprehensive analysis in biodiesel research, development and production. The analyzers are available for either process or bench-top applications. “Our new biodiesel analyzer is a significant update on our previous analyzer’s design,” says Brian Thomson with LT Industries. “It can do measurements that our previous version could not.” The Parafuel Biodiesel Analyzers can measure ASTM D6751 and EN 14214 properties including flash point, viscosity, cetane number, moisture, acid number, glycerin, and distillation temperature. They can also measure concentrations of species such as methanol or esters, and monitor transesterification reactions. The new product has improved sensitivity over previous analyzers, which has expanded the measurements that LT-NIR can perform. The new measurements this version can perform are free and total glycerin, including mono-, di- and triglycerides, and water content.

 In August, Nevada-based biodiesel producer Bently Biofuels Co. expanded its used cooking oil collection program by purchasing the assets of Got Grease?, a Bay Area waste oil and grease trap pumping company. Got Grease? collected used cooking oil throughout the San Francisco peninsula, East Bay, and Marin areas up to Sacramento. The used cooking oil was then sold to biofuels producers. As one of Got Grease?’s largest customers, Bently Biofuels says it was a natural fit to expand its used cooking oil collection services by purchasing the business assets. The expansion means the addition of approximately 12 jobs in the Bay Area. Christopher Bently, the CEO of Bently Biofuels, says, “By adding our own grease collection service, we increase our efficiency in delivering our alternative to toxic-based fossil fuels. I am very proud to present a more complete and capable Bently Biofuels in the interest of preserving our environment.”

Portuguese biodiesel technology provider Incbio announced it has signed a contract with Biokast Energy S.A. to supply an 8,000 ton (2.4 MMgy) ultrasonic biodiesel plant for installation in Tunis, Tunisia, a small country in North Africa. The plant will employ used cooking oil collected from restaurants in Tunis as feedstock. Incbio and Biokast Energy expect the plant to be complete January. “After a long time spent in the project-planning stage to ensure the client gets the business model right, we have signed the agreement and construction has commenced, which will see Biokast becoming one of the few biodiesel producers in Tunisia,” says José Marques, CEO of Incbio. Biokast Energy was established earlier this year with the purpose of collecting and processing UCO into biodiesel. The first project will be set up in an industrial site in Tunis, and will serve the area, with further projects planned for the near future in other cities throughout Tunisia.

Miamisburg, Ohio-based biodiesel technology provider Jatrodiesel Inc. made a strong showing in the 2013 Inc. 5000 list of America’s fastest growing companies, ranking 768 overall and 32 out of the top 100 energy companies. “RFS2 (the federal renewable fuel standard) coupled with advanced technologies that we offer, plus the breadth of experience we have in the field with more than 15 biodiesel plants all over the world, is helping us grow the company,” Jatrodiesel President and CEO Raj Mosali tells Biodiesel Magazine. “We couldn’t be more thankful to a proactive biodiesel board, our customers, vendors and lastly our valued and hardworking employees.” Mosali says he hopes Jatrodiesel’s patented marquee technology that eliminates use of acid and catalyst, a process that operates at supercritical pressure and temperatures, is going to catapult the company further into a leading position in the market. “We built a commercial version using this technology and it is performing above and beyond our expectations,” Mosali says. “We are excited about it, and we are actively looking for partners who own or have access to feedstock.”

R.C. Costello & Associates Inc. and Zeton Inc. have recently signed a memorandum of understanding. Costello has extensive front-end engineering, process modeling and design experience, and Zeton has specific know-how in the scale-up of process technology, specializing in designing and building modular pilot and demonstration plants. Together, Costello and Zeton will provide a customized “end-to-end” solution from feasibility studies, process simulation, front end engineering through detailed design, procurement, fabrication and factory testing. Costello has been involved with scale-up of chemical processes, oil and gas, polymers, biofuels and pharmaceutical processes from bench scale, to pilot plant and full-scale operating facilities. Costello in the past has gone out to various construction firms for manufacturing of their modular plants. Now in partnership with Zeton, they have a one-stop shop. Zeton is a recognized world leader in the design and fabrication of lab-scale systems, pilot plants, demonstration plants and small commercial plants using modular fabrication. Process modules are engineered and fabricated at Zeton’s two state-of-the-art, integrated design-build facilities in Burlington, Ontario, Canada, and Enschede, Netherlands.