SunPine Developing Tall Oil Refinery for Production of Biodiesel or Renewable Diesel Feedstock
31 December 2007
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| SunPine’s tall oil process produces either crude tall diesel for hydroprocessing at a refinery or standard biodiesel. Click to enlarge. |
SunPine AB is planning to build a production plant in Piteå, Sweden to convert crude tall oil (CTO) either to “crude tall diesel” for subsequent hydroprocessing at a refinery into a renewable diesel component or, via purification, into standard EN14214 biodiesel. The plant will have a capacity of up to 100,000 m3 of crude tall diesel per year. Construction work is planned to start early in 2008 and production in 2009.
Crude tall oil is a byproduct of the kraft (sulfate) processing of pinewood for pulp and paper. Crude tall oil starts as tall oil soap separated from recovered black liquor in the kraft pulping process. The tall oil soap is acidified to yield crude tall oil. Crude tall oil contains 40-50% fatty acids such as oleic and linoleic acids; 5-10% sterols, alcohols, and other neutral components.
Conventionally, CTO is first depitched and then upgraded by distillation to produce more valuable products such as tall oil fatty acids (TOFA) and tall oil rosin (TOR).
The Canada Center for Mineral and Energy Technology (CANMET) sponsored the development by the Saskatchewan Research Council of a process to convert tall oil into higher value products, involving the simultaneous catalytic hydrogenation and cracking of the depitched tall oil (DPTO). This results in a product called SuperCetane. (Earlier post.)
The SunPine process stops at an earlier point; the resulting crude tall diesel could then be used as a feedstock in a variety of the renewable diesel via hydroprocessing initiatives in the petrochemical industry.
SunPine is one of the participants in the Solander Science Park (SSP) in Piteå, a pulp mill-based R&D biorefinery cluster in Piteå, Sweden. The vision of SSP is to create a world class center for research and business development around the kraft pulp mill based biorefinery.
Current forest biorefinery projects at the Solander Science Park in addition to SunPine include:
Chemrec, black liquor gasification
BioXylane, hemicellulose recovery
BioLime, new lignin-based fuel
Resources
SunPine BioRefinery (November 2007)
Duran Altıparmak, Ali Keskin, Atilla Koca and Metin Gürü, Alternative fuel properties of tall oil fatty acid methyl ester–diesel fuel blends, Bioresource Technology Volume 98, Issue 2, January 2007, Pages 241-246
From the link: The production cost for 8upe~etane.[sic] including the capital and operating costs in a large scale plant is estimated at 10 to 12 cents per liter (Monnier, 1997). The cost of the tall oil as raw material could vary from 8 to 20 cents per liter of SuperCetane. Thus the total cost of this product could range between 18 to 32 cents per liter, which makes it economically more attractive than vegetable esters currently costing about 66 cents per liter.
Say goodbye to biodiesel, boys, as "green" diesel moves in for the kill.
Of course, the confusion would be greatly reduced if they kept the name biodiesel for fatty acid methyl esters (FAME) and used "green" or "renewable" diesel for hydrocarbons produced from renewable feedstocks.
Posted by: Engineer | 31 December 2007 at 11:28 AM
Keeping this in perspective it is about 1800 barrels a day when world oil production is stuck on 85m. The forestry industry should aim to produce more liquid fuels less paper. Like other forms of diesel based on canola or chicken fat it still uses a lipid (tall oil) of which there will never be enough to meet demand. A non-lipid process could also process recycled newspaper.
Posted by: Aussie | 31 December 2007 at 12:36 PM
Aussie,
That's true. It's early days yet. The first applications would focus on the low-hanging fruit: lipids. Later, we'd move on to ligno-cellulose. At least these guys are using a byproduct (or a waste) and not FOOD!
PS: Is that cricket team ever going to stop winning?
Posted by: Engineer | 31 December 2007 at 01:49 PM
100,000m^3 is about 26 million US gallons. That would make a nice dent in, say, the heating oil used by LIHeAP recipients in New England. Beats the heck out of sending $3.50/gallon to Exxon, or relying on the generosity of Citgo & Hugo Chavez, at any rate...
Posted by: rob | 31 December 2007 at 05:57 PM
If might only replace a very small amount of oil but its is something, its better then throwing it away. There is over a billion tons of agriculture waste in the US alone, all of that could replace 15-30% of the US petroleum if converted into fuels like ethanol, FT oils, etc. Sure that not all oil but in combination with other alternatives the possibility of a completely sustainable economy is within reach.
Posted by: Ben | 31 December 2007 at 08:52 PM
I have a customer with a new patented process for taking fatty acids from all oils (tall oil included) and converting them in 5-10 seconds to high grade biodiesel via a catalyst and high temperature and pressure. Proven in lab and a pilot plant, and soon in a larger production plant scheduled for opening this fall. They could use the crude tall oil.
Posted by: Ric | 14 April 2008 at 12:14 PM