10 MMGY Existing Plant Upgrade – Iowa, USA

Existing Plant Upgrade

As part of their Existing Plant Upgrade, we enhanced the biodiesel production process in their Clinton, Iowa facility. This 10 MMGY biodiesel plant, originally using a conventional Esterification process, required significant upgrades to improve production efficiency and handle feedstocks with high levels of free fatty acids (FFA).

To address these challenges, we implemented our High FFA Conversion Processing System as part of the Plant Upgrade. This system enables more effective conversion of high FFA feedstock into biodiesel, increasing overall process efficiency. The Plant Upgrade also included the addition of a resin-based, 2-stage Esterification System, which significantly improves the conversion rate. The system incorporates 2 stages of flash vessels to further enhance the efficiency of the esterification process.

Furthermore, the entire system in this Plant Upgrade is provisioned for 3 stages to accommodate extremely high FFA content in the feedstock. This allows the plant to work with a wider range of feedstock types, including those with fluctuating or high FFA levels, without compromising the quality of the final biodiesel product. The Plant Upgrade ensures the plant is more versatile and can meet future feedstock challenges with ease.

In addition to the Esterification process improvements, we upgraded the Plant Control System to a SCADA-Based Distributed Control System (DCS). This Plant Upgrade enables remote monitoring of both processes and equipment, providing operators with real-time data and control over the entire production process. With the ability to remotely monitor and adjust operations, plant efficiency and safety are significantly improved.

As part of the Upgrade, we also enhanced the Methanol Recovery System by installing our SRXC Distillation Tower. This advanced system separates methanol (MEOH) from water using a fractionating distillation column, ensuring high purity recovery. This Upgrade improves overall sustainability by reducing methanol losses, increasing the plant’s operational efficiency, and decreasing waste.