PRODUCTION LINE
BIOFUELS PLANT
The production line of Ekotrend Research Facility consists of modules.
The control of each section is fully automatic and it is monitored from the control room.
Feeding System
Premix & KDV
Cooling System
Fuel Finishing
Fuel Farm
P&ID
FEEDING SYSTEM
Raw material is dosed from a suspended supersack to hopper. There is a dust extraction system which helps reduce airborne particulate caused by the unloading of biomass into the system.
The biomass is then transported by screw conveyor to a dosing hopper with load cells for precise control of the biomass inputs.
Finally, biomass is dosed by a unique feed system which allows the biomass to be input directly into hot oil, all while being shielded with an inert gas for fire prevention.
PREMIX & KDV
The module consists of two 6000 liter reactors under vacuum with mixers, two distillation columns and two friction turbines. The turbines are the heart of the catalytic depolymerization process and are critical for the conversion of biomass to biofuels.
Operating temperature ranges from 280-350 degrees Celsius. Gaseous products exits the reactor through distillation columns made up of a series of stacked plates and foam breakers to ensure clean gases proceed onto the next process.
The gaseous products are then condensed in the cooling system and then liquids including bio-oil are collected in two intermediate 2 000 liters tanks. Non-condensable gases are purified in activated carbon filter.
A 6000 L carrier oil storage tank is used for charging the system with new oil or makeup oil during operation.
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COOLING SYSTEM
The installation includes two cooling systems. In the first one, seven tube condensers are installed above the distillation columns where gaseous products are condensed using glycol. Glycol is cooled by two sets of fan coolers located behind the building.
The main function of the second cooling system is to ensure that the carrier oil in reactors has a proper temperature. One of the reactor has a cooling coil where thermal oil is being circulated. The hot oil is cooled in the set of fan coolers.
FUEL FINISHING
Produced liquids are transferred from the processing building to the fuel finishing building by the tank farm.
In the first step, the mixture is initially filtered and then waste water is separated from the bio-oil in the intermediate tank.
The bio-oil is then ran through a series of filters to remove the last of the impurities before being dosed with additives. Clean biofuel is stored in the second intermediate tank.
Fuel additives dosing skid is located outside the building. The injection system has a possibility to dose up to 6 additives.
FUEL FARM
240 000 liters of fuel may be stored in four tanks. Two of them are fully certified for excise purposes. The other two tanks are used for intermediate product
The pump station gives a possibility to transfer fuel from one tank to the other.
Once sold, the finished product can be transferred to tanker trucks by a loading system with a certified flow meter.
