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Alfa Laval secures $32M in contracts to supply HVO pre-treatment technology to Europe’s largest biofuel facility

Alfa Laval has secured two contracts worth 350 million SEK (US$32 million) to supply HVO pre-treatment technology to Europe’s largest biofuel facility. The facility, a joint venture between Cepsa Bioenergia San Roque S.L. (CSBR), and Bio-Oils Energy, part of the Apical Group, will produce 500,000 tonnes of sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) and renewable diesel annually.

Alfa Laval’s Food & Water Division will supply two different pre-treatment units to CBSR’s €1.2-billion project. The construction of the plant is an important step on the journey towards decarbonizing the global transportation sector and will double CBSR’s total renewable fuels production capacity to one million tonnes a year.

The plant is designed to emit 75% less CO2 than a traditional biofuel plant. The facility, planned to be up and running during 2026, is currently under construction in Huelva, Spain.

Alfa Laval has a deep understanding of hydroprocessing oils and fats into renewable fuels based on decades of experience with pretreatment systems for edible oil and petroleum refining. Alfa Laval HVO pretreatment systems are optimized to remove impurities and reduce clogging, helping to prolong the lifespan of the hydrotreating catalyst and maximizing ROI.

Based on proven edible oil refining and petroleum refining technologies, the HVO pretreatment systems optimize stand-alone facilities for HVO production, as well as oil refineries converted into HVO production facilities.

Alfa Laval biofuel pretreatment systems include both physical refining processes and chemical refining processes. For HVO the preferred process is physical refining, involving special degumming and/or enzymatic degumming, adsorption, and deacidification (if required). The chemical refining process is mainly used in pretreatment of traditional biodiesel (fatty acid methyl esters), where Alfa Laval also has experience.

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To remove phosphorous and trace metals, the fats and oils (tallow, soy, rapeseed, distillers, corn oil, etc.) as well as recycled animal fat and used cooking oils undergo degumming with acid treatment (citric or phosphoric acid), and washing and adsorption using bleaching clays or similar with Alfa Laval high speed separators and plate heat exchangers.

Chlorides, if present, are removed at the front-end of the process by water washing and onward processing in Alfa Laval high speed separators and plate heat exchangers. Polyethylene, if present such as in some tallow qualities, can be removed by crystallization and filtration.

In some cases, the fatty acid content must be limited to eliminate the risk of corrosion due to metallurgy in the HVO section. This can be achieved by co-processing a blend of feedstocks, if needed, as well by steam stripping the oil under vacuum conditions using an Alfa Laval Aalborg High Pressure Natural Circulation boiler, welded and gasketed plate heat exchangers and an Alfa Laval stripping column.

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