KSB pumps for 'world's first' pine diesel plant
14 Jul 2010
Piteå, Sweden – German equipment maker KSB has supplied around 30 pumps to a pioneering new plant making diesel from tall oil, in Piteå, northern Sweden.
Sunpine AB started up the SEK250-million pine diesel facility in Piteå in April. With a target output of around 100,000m3, the unit is believed to the world’s first facility to produce diesel fuel from wood on a large industrial scale.
The operation, which is a member of the Solander Science park biofuels collaboration, converts crude biooil byproducts of pine pulping into second-generation biodiesel for shipment to diesel refining facilities.
Among the key equipment supppliers, KSB supplied the main standardised chemical pumps from its CPK-N range for the ’wood liquefaction’ process, which it described as “an important step into a very promising market.”
Prior to the plant’s construction, KSB’s Swedish subsidiary was involved in preliminary studies, with specialists from the group’s Pegnitz factory called in to select optimum materials for the application.
As both the oil and its intermediates have high boiling points and tend to disintegrate and polymerise at the same time, the demands placed on the pumps are very high, KSB noted.
The acids and sulphur compounds in the oil, are highly corrosive and thus add to the requirements to be met by the pumps and their design, the pumps major explained.
Another SunPine supplier is Invensys, which provided its SimSci-Esscor’s PRO/IIsimulation software to model the biodiesel refining operation in Piteå.
“Efficient operation of the distillation column is critical to profitability of biodiesel production, impacting cost, output and regulatory compliance,” said Magnus Wikman, acting MD for SunPine.
“The more accurately we can simulate our operation, the more effectively we can optimise availability and utilisation of the distillation column.”
