The final day of the 2014 International Biomass Conference in Orlando featured a tour to Viesel Fuel in Stuart, Florida where we were allowed an up-close view of their state-of-the-art 7.5 million gallon per year biodiesel facility. Viesel staff was happy to present, and all who attended were thrilled to have the opportunity to have a first-hand view of how Viesel aims to revolutionize the biodiesel industry through innovation and strong partnerships.

Viesel is pushing the innovation envelope by utilizing enzymes to convert raw oils into biodiesel. The majority of operating biodiesel plants across the industry use an acid or base solution of alcohol to catalyze and carry the transesterification process of raw veggie and animal oils into glycerin and biodiesel. Viesel, in conjunction with Novozymes, has developed and deployed an enzymatic process that breaks the limits currently constraining the traditional biodiesel industry. “Producing biodiesel with enzymes allows us to use less energy, less chemicals, and lower quality feedstock,” Graham Dowerton, Project Manager at Viesel stated at the beginning of the tour. Higher temperatures and greater amounts of methanol are required in the more traditional processes, which negatively affects the energy required and profitability of traditional plants. By employing an enzyme to act as the catalyst, Viesel only needs to reach a process temperature around 100° F. This saves Viesel considerable energy and thus money throughout the production process. Additionally, compared to more traditional production methods, the enzymatic process requires considerably less methanol. Yet, what excites Viesel most about the enzymatic process is its ability to handle lower quality feedstocks.

Along with higher heat and greater amounts of ethanol needed during processing, traditional biodiesel production facilities are limited by the amount of free fatty acids (FFAs) that can be present in the oil feedstocks. There is a large market of oils and greases that have high concentrations of FFAs and prove to be unavailable to the more traditional facilities. These plants are limited to feedstocks with FFA concentrations of around 5%, according to Viesel staff. Alternatively, the enzymatic process not only tolerates higher concentrations of FFAs but is able to convert them into high quality biodiesel. “FFAs are not a limiting factor in what we can make biodiesel from. They’re actually a viable feedstock,” Becky Hobden, Chemical Engineer at Viesel, explained to tour attendees. Viesel’s ability to process previously unusable feedstocks is not only a boon for Viesel but, according to Hobden, a major breakthrough for the entire biodiesel industry.

The acquisition of feedstock is the costliest part of running a biodiesel facility, with 70% of operating cost at Viesel spent simply on collecting and purchasing various oil feedstocks. Viesel independently collect used cooking oil from roughly one thousand restaurants to cut the cost of feedstock, but this only makes up 5% of the oil that passes through their plant. The rest is purchased from renderers. Minimizing the cost of feedstock dramatically affects their bottom line. According to Dowerton, for every $0.01 saved per pound on feedstock generates $500,000 in savings on an annual basis. While used cooking oil, which has a relatively low concentration of FFAs, costs around $2 per gallon, higher FFA oil, like brown grease, costs around a dollar less. Accessing the brown grease market and converting it into biodiesel is seen as “the Holy Grail of our business,” exclaimed Hobden. Though Viesel’s enzymatic process allows access to lower cost, higher FFA feedstocks, sulfur is the final road block in Viesel’s quest for the ‘Holy Grail’ of biodiesel production.

The EPA limits the amount of sulfur that can be present in on-road and more recently off-road diesel. Biodiesel produced from brown grease can have up to 250 ppm, and with a limit of 15 ppm set by the EPA, brown grease biodiesel is not currently allowed as an approved feedstock. Viesel is working with a number of technology providers to reduce the concentrations of sulfur in brown grease biodiesel, and they say they are close. Once they are able to economically remove the sulfur, they will have found and possess the ‘Holy Grail’ of the biodiesel industry.

Because of Viesel’s unabashed honesty regarding their successes and barriers, the tour was well received by attendees. We saw how they are openly working with a number of partners to streamline the enzymatic biodiesel production process and gain access to underutilized feedstocks. Through innovation and strong partnerships, Viesel is revolutionizing the biodiesel industry.

I would like to thank everybody at Viesel for the highly pertinent and very informative tour. Thank you.

By Kolby Hoagland | Biomass Magazine – March 28, 2014

Visit our booth #111 AND LEARN MORE ABOUT THE VIESEL FUEL ENZYMATIC TECHNOLOGY


The benefits of enzyme catalysts in the production of biodiesel have long been apparent, but until now their adoption on a commercial scale has not been economically feasible. Viesel’s process has demonstrated that enzymes are an exciting catalyst that requires less energy and fewer chemicals. When coupled with resin technologies for refining to ASTM specifications, the process becomes cost comparable to traditional catalysts. But the true economic benefit of enzymes comes in their ability to handle a variety of inexpensive feedstocks making enzymes a financially prudent route for biodiesel producers, allowing them to thrive despite low RIN prices and the disappearance of tax incentives.

AND LEARN MORE ABOUT THE VIESEL FUEL ENZYMATIC TECHNOLOGY


The benefits of enzyme catalysts in the production of biodiesel have long been apparent, but until now their adoption on a commercial scale has not been economically feasible. Viesel’s process has demonstrated that enzymes are an exciting catalyst that requires less energy and fewer chemicals. When coupled with resin technologies for refining to ASTM specifications, the process becomes cost comparable to traditional catalysts. But the true economic benefit of enzymes comes in their ability to handle a variety of inexpensive feedstocks making enzymes a financially prudent route for biodiesel producers, allowing them to thrive despite low RIN prices and the disappearance of tax incentives.

The 2014 International Biomass Conference & Expo is pleased to offer conference attendees two compelling industry tours on Thursday, March 27. Viesel Fuel Featured tour facility for the International Biomass Conference where attendees will have an opportunity to see a biodiesel facility pioneering an enzymatic pathway to fuel production. Industry tours are opportunities to see industry progress first hand while networking with other tour attendees.

Viesel Fuel Stuart, Florida
Thursday, March 27 Time 8:30 am – 3:00 pm
More information click here

Viesel Fuel LLC

Viesel Fuel, in Stuart, Florida, is a 7.5 million gallon per year biodiesel facility that is pioneering the use of enzymes and resins to access lower-quality feedstocks in the production of ASTM D6751 certified biodiesel. The enzymatic and resin technologies employed by Viesel require less energy than traditional biodiesel production, thereby reducing greenhouse gas emissions, and can be constructed for a lower capital cost than traditional biodiesel plants. Attendees on this tour will get an up-close view of how Viesel Fuel is revolutionizing the industry with enzymatic and resin technologies.

In Florida, Viesel Fuel has developed a biodiesel production process using enzymes to produce at a rate of 5 MMgy, in collaboration with Novozymes and Tactical Fabrication. The technology recovers and reuses the enzymes to catalyze several batches, making enzymes affordable, with resin-based technology used to bring the crude biodiesel technology up to ASTM specifications. The company claims the process, which requires a low capital investment, can be easily scaled.

Viesel Fuel, in collaboration with Novozymes and Tactical Fabrication, has developed and implemented a biodiesel production process using enzymes to produce at a rate of 5 MMgy. The company says its process can be easily scaled to larger capacities.

Enzyme-catalyzed biodiesel production has long been on the cusp of revolutionizing the way biodiesel is produced. Historically, the high cost of enzymes has outweighed any benefits they might offer, such as their ability to convert low-quality, high free fatty acid (FFA) feedstocks, savings on energy consumption, and coproduction of technical-grade glycerin. Recently, the hurdle of making the process economically viable on a commercial scale has been overcome.

Viesel Fuel LLC, in collaboration with Novozymes and Tactical Fabrication LLC, has developed and implemented a biodiesel production process that uses enzymes to produce at a rate of 5 million gallons annually. Further, this process is easily scalable to larger capacities. Recovery and reuse of the enzymes to catalyze several batches makes the enzymes economically feasible, and simple resin-based technology is used to bring the crude biodiesel into ASTM specifications. Additionally, this process requires a lower capital investment, works at a production cost per gallon that is comparable to that of traditional biodiesel, and most importantly, allows the use of less expensive, more varied feedstocks with free fatty acid content as high as 100 percent.

Feedstocks in the Market

Demand for biodiesel in recent years has greatly increased due to consumer acceptance as well as incentives and mandates, such as the renewable fuel standard (RFS), which are in place through state and federal governments. Consequently, the economic viability of many biodiesel facilities relies heavily on the ever-changing policies related to biodiesel. Because the cost of feedstock is the largest single expenditure in the production of biodiesel, the flexibility enzymes allow to use any feedstock that may appear in the marketplace, from brown grease to virgin oil, is economically advantageous and offers a reprieve for biodiesel producers whose sustainability shifts and destabilizes with the changing value of tax credits and RIN prices.

Pretreatment of feedstock is required to remove impurities that may be harmful to the reaction kinetics (in this case the enzymes) and/or prohibit compliance with ASTM D6751 standards. The use of low-quality feedstocks has been problematic for traditional processes and catalysts, even after all other impurities have been neutralized, due to their high FFA content. A major advantage of enzymes is their ability to easily convert FFA to fatty acid methyl esters (FAME) at temperatures around 95 degrees Fahrenheit, and with less methanol. The appropriate pretreatment method depends on the feedstock, and might include water washes and settling, neutralization of pH, or filtration. Sulfur is one of the more troublesome contaminants in low-quality feedstocks, but research and development of technologies including filtration and resins for sulfur reduction to 15 ppm in either feedstock or crude biodiesel assists in making inexpensive, high-FFA feedstock a viable option.

Enzymatic Reaction

The enzymes are able to convert high-FFA feedstock because the reaction chemistry occurs in two steps: the glycerides are first hydrolyzed to FFA, and then the FFA and methanol are esterified to produce FAME. When using high-FFA feedstock, the hydrolysis step has already occurred and the main job of the enzyme becomes the conversion of FFA to FAME. In the esterification step, water is produced and absorbed into the heavy phase, which also consists of glycerol, excess methanol and enzymes. Conveniently, water is a necessary component to activate the enzymes and does not lead to soapy contaminants, as it does in many traditional processes.

Careful monitoring during the reaction of methanol, water and enzymes in the heavy phase, temperature, and rate of conversion are critical to ensure high-quality finished biodiesel and optimum number of enzyme reuses. The “happier” the enzymes are, the longer they will remain active, and the more economical they become.

Enzyme Recovery and Reuse

To recover the enzymes, the reaction mixture must go through two different stages of settling. Initial settling results in a heavy phase that includes glycerol, methanol, water and enzymes, as well as a light phase of crude biodiesel. At this point, the crude biodiesel can be withdrawn from the reactor and refined, while the heavy phase requires further separation. The second stage of settling results in a transparent glycerin phase, which falls to the bottom of the reaction vessel, and the enzymes, which migrate to the interface between crude biodiesel and glycerin. This second separation can be expedited by the use of flocculants or mechanically separated with membranes. A portion of the glycerin phase is withdrawn and refined, while the remaining glycerin and the layer of active enzymes are retained in the reactor and reused to catalyze the next reaction. Combining proper feedstock pretreatment and optimized reaction conditions allows Viesel to run a series with a minimum of eight to 10 enzyme reuses, with a 10 percent addition of fresh enzymes to each batch.

The glycerin can be cleaned easily to 80 percent purity with simple vacuum distillation to remove methanol and water. If a processor chooses to add additional processing, such as resins, filtration or active carbon, this glycerin could be purified to greater than 97 percent. In either event, the glycerin can be sold into value-added applications not normally available for crude glycerin.

Biodiesel Refining

The use of enzymes results in a crude biodiesel with 1.5 to 2.0 percent unreacted FFA. Viesel Fuel initially used a caustic wash to turn this FFA to soap, followed by washes and centrifugation to remove the soap and water. The recovered soap was acidulated back to FFA, for reuse as a blend component in the feedstock.

Viesel Fuel has most recently adopted the use of resin technologies, both as a catalyst to convert FFA to FAME and in an ion exchange capacity to adsorb any remaining FFA. The optimization of resins makes the refining process simpler, reduces yield loss, and has allowed Viesel Fuel to transition to a continuous flow process for the biodiesel refining section of the plant. Viesel Fuel will further develop the capability to convert the current batch enzymatic reaction process into a continuous process throughout 2014.

Conclusion

The benefits of enzyme catalysts in the production of biodiesel have long been apparent, but until now their adoption on a commercial scale has not been economically feasible. With production approaching 150 batches in six months, Viesel Fuel’s process has demonstrated that enzymes are an exciting catalyst that require less energy and fewer chemicals. When coupled with resin technologies for refining to ASTM specifications, the process becomes cost comparable to traditional catalysts. But the true economic benefit of enzymes comes in their ability to handle a variety of inexpensive feedstocks, making enzymes a financially prudent route for biodiesel producers, allowing them to thrive despite low RIN prices and the disappearance of tax incentives.

Author: Rebecca Hobden
Chemical Engineer, Viesel Fuel LLC
772-678-9934
rhobden@vieselfuel.com

By Kolby Hoagland | March 28, 2014

The final day of the 2014 International Biomass Conference in Orlando featured a tour to Viesel Fuel in Stuart, Florida where we were allowed an up-close view of their state-of-the-art 7.5 million gallon per year biodiesel facility. Viesel staff was happy to present, and all who attended were thrilled to have the opportunity to have a first-hand view of how Viesel aims to revolutionize the biodiesel industry through innovation and strong partnerships.

Viesel is pushing the innovation envelope by utilizing enzymes to convert raw oils into biodiesel. The majority of operating biodiesel plants across the industry use an acid or base solution of alcohol to catalyze and carry the transesterification process of raw veggie and animal oils into glycerin and biodiesel. Viesel, in conjunction with Novozymes, has developed and deployed an enzymatic process that breaks the limits currently constraining the traditional biodiesel industry. “Producing biodiesel with enzymes allows us to use less energy, less chemicals, and lower quality feedstock,” Graham Dowerton, Project Manager at Viesel stated at the beginning of the tour. Higher temperatures and greater amounts of methanol are required in the more traditional processes, which negatively affects the energy required and profitability of traditional plants. By employing an enzyme to act as the catalyst, Viesel only needs to reach a process temperature around 100° F. This saves Viesel considerable energy and thus money throughout the production process. Additionally, compared to more traditional production methods, the enzymatic process requires considerably less methanol. Yet, what excites Viesel most about the enzymatic process is its ability to handle lower quality feedstocks.

Along with higher heat and greater amounts of ethanol needed during processing, traditional biodiesel production facilities are limited by the amount of free fatty acids (FFAs) that can be present in the oil feedstocks. There is a large market of oils and greases that have high concentrations of FFAs and prove to be unavailable to the more traditional facilities. These plants are limited to feedstocks with FFA concentrations of around 5%, according to Viesel staff. Alternatively, the enzymatic process not only tolerates higher concentrations of FFAs but is able to convert them into high quality biodiesel. “FFAs are not a limiting factor in what we can make biodiesel from. They’re actually a viable feedstock,” Becky Hobden, Chemical Engineer at Viesel, explained to tour attendees. Viesel’s ability to process previously unusable feedstocks is not only a boon for Viesel but, according to Hobden, a major breakthrough for the entire biodiesel industry.

The acquisition of feedstock is the costliest part of running a biodiesel facility, with 70% of operating cost at Viesel spent simply on collecting and purchasing various oil feedstocks. Viesel independently collect used cooking oil from roughly one thousand restaurants to cut the cost of feedstock, but this only makes up 5% of the oil that passes through their plant. The rest is purchased from renderers. Minimizing the cost of feedstock dramatically affects their bottom line. According to Dowerton, for every $0.01 saved per pound on feedstock generates $500,000 in savings on an annual basis. While used cooking oil, which has a relatively low concentration of FFAs, costs around $2 per gallon, higher FFA oil, like brown grease, costs around a dollar less. Accessing the brown grease market and converting it into biodiesel is seen as “the Holy Grail of our business,” exclaimed Hobden. Though Viesel’s enzymatic process allows access to lower cost, higher FFA feedstocks, sulfur is the final road block in Viesel’s quest for the ‘Holy Grail’ of biodiesel production.

The EPA limits the amount of sulfur that can be present in on-road and more recently off-road diesel. Biodiesel produced from brown grease can have up to 250 ppm, and with a limit of 15 ppm set by the EPA, brown grease biodiesel is not currently allowed as an approved feedstock. Viesel is working with a number of technology providers to reduce the concentrations of sulfur in brown grease biodiesel, and they say they are close. Once they are able to economically remove the sulfur, they will have found and possess the ‘Holy Grail’ of the biodiesel industry.

Because of Viesel’s unabashed honesty regarding their successes and barriers, the tour was well received by attendees. We saw how they are openly working with a number of partners to streamline the enzymatic biodiesel production process and gain access to underutilized feedstocks. Through innovation and strong partnerships, Viesel is revolutionizing the biodiesel industry.

I would like to thank everybody at Viesel for the highly pertinent and very informative tour. Thank you.

By Brent Chrabas | December 09, 2014

In collaboration with Tactical Fabrication of Dublin, Georgia, and Novozymes of Denmark, a novel biodiesel production technology developed by Viesel Skunk Works LLC will soon be offered commercially. The innovative system features a continuous flow enzymatic reaction process that also eliminates sulfur from biodiesel when low-grade feedstocks such as brown grease are used. Today, the dominant method of producing biodiesel is through batch reactions, which can be considered inferior due to lower productivity, larger variation in product quality, and more intensive labor and energy requirements.

The development of continuous reactors for biodiesel production using enzymatic catalyst has been discussed for a long time, yet there is no saleable biodiesel produced from commercial biodiesel plants with a continuous enzymatic reactor. Most importantly, reducing the sulfur to 15 ppm in biodiesel when the feedstock contains up to 10,000 ppm of sulfur compounds is currently one of the biggest technological challenges for biodiesel producers.

The patent-pending technology Viesel Skunk Works LLC developed is a design of several continuously stirred tank reactors (CSTRs). In this system, only a very low dosage of the liquid Novozymes enzymatic catalyst needs to be added to the reactor. It provides for a very complete reaction with the potential of using fewer enzymes than in single-step batch systems. Moreover, this is the most economical process of biodiesel production in the industry producing a 99 percent conversion yield with any kind of low-grade feedstocks, such as waste cooking oil, animal fats, brown grease and more. The initial investment is materially lower than other conventional methods and the fully automated process guarantees production of low-cost biodiesel.

The benefits of using the Viesel Skunk Works continuous enzymatic process for biodiesel production are as follows.

Simpler Design

Several simple CSTRs and skid-mounted injection pumps are the main components of the continuous system. Each CSTR can be easily switched to batch operation mode in the case of accidental interruption of the continuous mode. Intensive caustic washing in the current enzymatic process for free fatty acid removal is overcome by using simple resin columns, which fully convert FFAs to corresponding esters. The problem of sulfur contamination by the low-grade feedstock was solved by introducing a new, simple, patent-pending distillation system to remove the sulfur compounds from the final biodiesel product. Furthermore, this continuous enzymatic process can be outfitted with automated in-line analysis systems, which allow biodiesel quality to be assured in real time.

Faster Production

The Viesel Skunk Works continuous process is stable, with maximum biodiesel productivity approximately five times faster than the conventional batch process. The process can be brought up to any rate of production rapidly by automatically adjusting flow rates and quantities of reagents needed while targeting the requisite enzyme dosage using the online digital control system. Product meeting specifications set forth by ASTM D6751 can be obtained in a shorter time due an advanced mixing process.

Lower Capital Investment

Moderate reaction conditions, more efficient mixing technology and smaller plant footprint guarantee a much lower capital investment in the continuous enzymatic process. Furthermore, in contrast to utilizing a high-cost immobilized enzyme, which may perish with mishandling, flexibility in acquiring liquid phase, homogeneous, single-use enzymes as needed is extended to operators of this process. The technical challenge of reducing sulfur levels from up to 1,000 ppm in biodiesel to a maximum of 15 ppm to meet strict ultra-low sulfur diesel (ULSD) requirements was also resolved by the Viesel Skunk Works team by offering a modular component capable of sulfur separation. This final component to the continuous enzymatic process makes the production of high-quality biodiesel perfectly continuous without requiring any expensive hydrodesulphurization processes or intermittent addition of hazardous organic solvents or additives in the process when using cheap, high-FFA feedstocks.

Low-cost Production

The largest benefit of using the Viesel Skunk Works continuous enzymatic process is being able to adapt its use to a variety of low-cost, high-FFA, cheap feedstocks such as brown grease. Feedstock costs are recognized as the highest variable cost in the production of biodiesel accounting for up to 80 percent of the material costs associated with making a gallon of biodiesel. This process allows the use of materials that may be as much as 50 percent cheaper than conventional feedstocks, which have limited use in traditional biodiesel processes.

The revolutionary continuous enzymatic process being demonstrated by Viesel Skunk Works LLC at its world headquarters in Stuart, Florida, has been progressively designed to streamline production with reduced start-up costs. Its processing capabilities that make use of cheap feedstocks not ordinarily available for traditional biodiesel processes afford plant operators the ability to better manage production costs. The culmination of research efforts embodied by the Viesel Skunk Works Continuous Enzymatic Process make certain that biodiesel will persevere as a low-cost alternative to its petroleum counterpart amid any market conditions.

Author: Brent Chrabas

Quality Engineer, Viesel Fuel LLC

772-781-4300

brent@vieselfuel.com

Editor’s Note: This article was written exclusively for Biodiesel Magazine by Viesel Fuel LLC.

By Richard Westlund

For Progress & Innovation

One of the Treasure Coast’s innovative manufacturing companies is recovering from a serious setback this spring.

Viesel Fuel has developed a new process to produce biodiesel fuel using fats, oils and greases from wastewater— a renewable energy business with worldwide potential.

But on April 1, a fire at the Stuart company’s facility destroyed six 10,000-gallon tanks of biodiesel and one tank of methanol. Fortunately, the company’s research and development operations, as well as its biodiesel processing plant, had relatively little damage.

“We are moving forward, and will be back into operation as soon as possible,” said Stuart Lamb, president and CEO, Viesel Fuel, LLC, which has 45 employees, including five chemical engineers.

Regaining momentum

While the loss of the storage tanks has impacted the company’s timetable, Lamb expects Viesel Fuel to regain its momentum later this year.

“We have been working on our process for several years, and are ready to take it from the laboratory to the commercial market,” he said in an interview prior to the fire.

Last year, Viesel Fuel reached an agreement to produce biodiesel using an enzymatic process developed by Novozymes, a Danish biotechnology company that is one of the world’s largest producers of enzymes.

Crystal-clear diesel fuel

“We can use those enzymes to turn grease, cooking oil, fish oil, fats and similar substances into crystalclear diesel fuel that can power large systems or small generators in rural communities around the world,” Lamb said. “These enzymes are magical, provided you give them the right env i ronment .”

First, the fats, oils and greases (FOG) are removed from the “sludge” at a wastewater treatment plant, Lamb said. Next, the FOG is separated from any wastewater and poured into a tank, where the enzymes are added.

Viesel Fuel has developed a process that keeps the liquid moving continuously for 12 to 15 hours until it turns into biodiesel fuel.

Previously, biodiesel fuel was typically produced in a “ batch” process that was less efficient and could lead to uneven results.

Real, scalable technology

Last year, Viesel Fuel produced 7.5 million gallons of biodiesel fuel, from FOG materials taken from a Miami-Dade wastewater plant. The company has obtained approvals from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) for use the use of FOG as an approved biomass and for use of the biodiesel as a fuel additive.

“This is not experimental technology,” said Lamb. “It is real and very scalable as well.”

For instance, a rural village without electricity could use Viesel’s process to make biodiesel fuel for tractors or generators in a five-gallon drum. A large industrial operation put the enzyme process to work in a 500,000-gallon tank.

Game-changer for energy

Lamb said Viesel’s affiliated company, Viesel Skunk Works, plans to license its technology and provide training to prospective users. “We will also work with Novozymes to implement this process in markets like Southeast Asia, South America and Africa,” he said. “This is truly a gamechanger for the energy industry and it’s happening right here in Stuart.”

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