Innovative biodiesel
13 Sep 2004
AMEC has been awarded a $1.9 million contract to design a $24 million commercial scale biodiesel production facility for Biox Corporation in Hamilton, Ontario.
The new plant will deploy a new process technology developed by Dr. David Boocock at the University of Toronto that converts any feedstock including agricultural seed oils, waste animal fats and recovered vegetable oils into biodiesel in a continuous process.
In the Biox process, fatty acids and triglycerides are sequentially converted to methyl esters by acid catalysed esterification and base catalysed transesterification. This reaction is over 99% complete in seconds at near-ambient temperatures and atmospheric pressures, compared to previous processes which required several hours.
The new Canadian facility, which will be built subject to environmental approvals, will be designed to produce 60 million litres of biodiesel a year. As a result, North American biodiesel production capacity will be increased by 50%.
When the facility in Hamilton is completed, Biox plans to build additional plants elsewhere in Canada and eventually expand internationally.
