- Offer Profile
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We are a full-range supplier of innovative GreenTech Process Solutions.
Since our founding in 1996, we have been developing resource-saving technologies for upgrading residual and waste streams from industry. We support our customers along the entire value chain. Following the philosophy "from waste to value", we set new standards in terms of innovation, technological leadership, product quality and economy.
BDI BioDiesel
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Clean Energy thanks to multi-feedstock technology
Our tailor-made BDI BioDiesel plants work with the Multi-Feedstock process we have developed ourselves. This enables various types of raw materials to be transferred into valuable BioDiesel.
In contrast to conventional BioDiesel processes, the use of BDI RepCAT technology allows us to avoid costly processing of by-products. In addition, the use of a recyclable catalyst significantly improves the quality of the products (BioDiesel and glycerin).
BioDiesel applications
Types of raw materials
- The production of BioDiesel from raw materials such as waste oils and fats, as well as virgin vegetable oils, has established itself as a trend-setting path. Nevertheless, there is still enormous potential in untapped raw material to be further exploited.
Used cooking oils
- Used cooking oils are the most important recycling material for BioDiesel production. The largest quantities are generated in industry and commerce. The number of collection companies that specialize in the removal of these substances is increasing worldwide. In addition, the collection of used cooking oils from households offers great potential, as the recycling rate in this sector is still low.
Animal fats
- The use of animal fats is closely related to the production of BioDiesel in Europe. Due to the problem of bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), also known as mad cow disease, the use of animal by-products, which are legally defined as risk materials, is linked to compliance with official requirements and operational controls. The basis for processing these so-called Category 1 and 2 risk fats is the BDI Multi-Feedstock process, which has been approved by the EU as an official waste disposal technology.
Trap grease
- Wherever edible fats and oils are used - for example in the food industry, canteens, restaurants or supermarkets - trap grease can be separated from the contaminated wastewater as a valuable raw material. For this purpose, it is necessary to provide a grease trap before discharging into the sewer system. Thanks to BDI Multi-Feedstock technology, the trap grease obtained is ideally suited for the production of high-quality BioDiesel and, at the same time, a waste and energy problem for many municipalities can be solved. Another advantage is that problems in the sewage system, which can be attributed to improper disposal, are avoided. The best example is the disposal of the fatberg in London using BDI BioDiesel technology. More information can be found in this article.
BioDiesel technology
BioDiesel
- We are the benchmark in the engineering and construction of industrial BioDiesel plants. The unsurpassed flexibility in the use of raw materials, maximum yield, low operating and maintenance costs as well as the well-known reliability of our plants guarantee the highest possible efficiency and profitability. Product quality in all cases exceeds the strictest quality standards such as EN14214 and ASTM D6751.
RepCAT
- BDI has developed its RepCAT technology for processing raw materials with a high proportion of free fatty acids (FFA). This innovative process can transfer raw materials containing up to 99 percent FFA. The specially developed system allows the catalyst to be reused within the process, which significantly reduces operating costs. A further advantage compared to other industrial processes is the production of absolutely salt-free glycerin of distilled quality.
Technological competitive advantages
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- Maximum raw material flexibility – no limits to FFA content in the raw material
- Technically maximum yield
- No waste of which to be disposed from the process, but instead reusable or saleable by-products
- Exceeding all applicable BioDiesel quality standards
- Many years of international experience in large-scale industrial implementation
Selected Projects
- Over the past two decades, we have engineered, built and commissioned more than 40 large-scale industrial BioDiesel plants on four continents. When applying BDI Multi-Feedstock technology, our customers can produce high-quality BioDiesel from various raw materials for a wide variety of industrial requirements. With a comprehensive after-sales service, we additionally ensure long-lasting customer satisfaction.
BioDiesel plant Crimson Renewable Energy L.P. (Bakersfield, USA)-
BDI RepCAT technology for waste oils and fats from California
- Client: Crimson Renewable Energy L.P.
- Technology: RepCAT RC100
- Commissioning: 2019, under construction
- Raw material: High-FFA Waste Oils and Fats, UCO, Animal Fat
- Products. BioDiesel ASTM D6751 BioDiesel ASTM D6751
- By-products: Distilled Glycerine, Bio-Heating Oil
BioDiesel Plant Argent Energy Ltd. (Stanlow, UK - Phase 1+2)
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Planning, delivery, construction and commissioning of the Multi-Feedstock BioDiesel plant including high-FFA esterification
- Client: Argent Energy Ltd. (UK)
- Technology: Multi-Feedstock MF100+ (incl. high-FFA esterification)
- Commissioning: 2017
- Capacity: 75,000 tons per year
- Raw material: Cat.1 animal fats, used cooking oil, high-FFA waste oil and fat
- Products: BioDiesel EN14214
- By-products: Glycerin, potassium sulfate, organic heating oil
BioDiesel Plant ASB Biodiesel Ltd. (Hong Kong, HK)
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"The world's largest Multi-Feedstock BioDiesel plant"
- Customer: ASB Biodiesel Ltd.
- Technology: Multi-Feedstock MF100+ (incl. high-FFA esterification)
- Commissioning: 2015
- Capacity: 100,000 tons per year
- Raw material: Animal fat, used cooking oil, trap grease, palm sludge oil
- Products: BioDiesel EN14214
- By-products: Glycerin, potassium sulfate, organic heating oil
BioDiesel plant Münzer Bioindustrie GmbH (Vienna, AT)
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Turnkey project | BioDiesel pipeline to refinery - short transport routes
- Customer: Münzer Bioindustrie GmbH (AT)
- Technology: Multi-Feedstock MF30, glycerin distillation
- Commissioning: 2006
- Capacity: 140,000 tons per year
- Raw material: Vegetable oil, used cooking oil
- Products: BioDiesel EN14214
- By-products: Pharmaceutical-grade glycerin, potassium sulfate
BioDiesel plant Argent Energy Ltd. (Motherwell, UK - incl. expansion )
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First EU-sponsored plant for animal fat of the CAT 1+2
- Client: Argent Energy Ltd. (UK)
- Technology: Multi-Feedstock MF100, high-FFA esterification
- Commissioning: 2005
- Capacity: 45,000 tons per year
- Raw material: Cat.1 animal fat, used cooking oil, high-FFA waste oil and fat
- Products: BioDiesel EN14214
- By-products: Glycerin, potassium sulfate, organic heating oil
BDI RetroFit
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Plant optimisation from the technology leader
Do you have a BioDiesel plant that was not engineered or built by BDI?
Are you unable to process low-cost raw materials?Make your plant more profitable and future-proof!
We optimize your existing BioDiesel plant and bring it up to date with BDI technology. The implementation of our proprietary RetroFit program in existing industrial plants increases raw material flexibility and simultaneously improves BioDiesel quality.
This innovative measure also permits the use of raw materials of inferior quality, such as used cooking oils, animal fats and trap grease. BDI BioDiesel distillation ensures that the quality of the fuel produced remains consistently high even with inferior raw material quality.
RetroFit applications
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Due to rising prices for fully refined vegetable oils and simultaneously decreasing quality of low-cost residues and waste fat materials, the use of highly flexible technologies is necessary. In addition, there is the environmental political will to make energy supply more independent, to process waste and residual materials into clean energy and to become sustainably "greener".
Thanks to the implementation of new process steps or an adaptation in the use of operating resources, optimization of original systems can be achieved. Improved raw material pre-processing and adaptation of distillation technology result in a higher output of high-quality BioDiesel.
With BDI’s high-FFA process, raw materials with up to 99 percent free fatty acid content can be used. This results in advantages for the plant operator such as the use of new raw material sources, reduction of total raw material costs and reduced consumption of operating materials. The by-product glycerin can also be processed into a high-quality product.
RetroFit technology
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Every BioDiesel plant is unique. Simple standard solutions to improve individual parameters such as yield, product quality or raw material flexibility are therefore ineffective.
In order to achieve an optimal result, it is necessary to develop an individual overall concept for each plant and to implement optimal technical solutions. The result is a sustained improvement in plant performance.
Our one-stop-shop includes all necessary steps for successful plant optimization:
- Status evaluation
- Pre-engineering
- Offer preparation
- Authorization procedure
- Engineering and delivery
- Implementation
- Commissioning
- After-sales services
- Training of plant operators
- Production support
- Analytical support
- Safety evaluation
Additional RetroFit services
Selected projects
- Thanks to our many years of expertise in BioDiesel plant construction, we have the know-how to identify the potential for improvement in every existing plant and to engineer and install suitable solutions. Since the introduction of the RetroFit program, we have successfully carried out more than 30 future-proof projects worldwide.
Client: Kolmar Americas Inc.
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- Location: New Haven (USA)
- Year of execution: 2017
- RetroFit units: BioDiesel purification stages, fat/raw material processing
Client: Crimson Renewable Energy L.P.
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- Location: Bakersfield (USA)
- Year of execution: 2014
- RetroFit units: BioDiesel purification stages, installation of a by-product line
Client: Elin Biofuels
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- Location: Volos S.A. (GR)
- Year of execution: 2013
- RetroFit units: Advanced esterification and ECO distillation
GreenTech Process Solution
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Support throughout the entire value chain
The commercial success of innovation depends on much more than laboratory results. On the way to market readiness, various hurdles must be overcome. This requires a high degree of technical and economic understanding, as well as a reliable technology partner in project implementation - from authority permits to commissioning.
We are at our customers' side throughout the entire value chain, offering integrated concepts for the industrial implementation of newly developed technologies and thus generating sustainable benefits.
Parallel to our technical scale-up - from laboratory-scale to pilot plant development - we carry out economic feasibility studies, the results of which are constantly incorporated into the process design. Through the implementation of internal recycling cycles, both the greatest possible use of the raw material and the avoidance or minimization of waste streams are sought. This reduces negative environmental impacts in the form of wastes and emissions to a minimum. The finished process concept for the large-scale plant is therefore optimally designed from an ecological and economic point of view.
Our in-house technical center offers the ideal prerequisite for piloting a wide variety of technologies and producing the first product quantities that can be used to analyze product quality and market acceptance. This means that the right levers are moved on a small scale and subsequent problems with the industrial system or the product are avoided.
We act as a missing link between process ideas and turnkey industrial-scale production plants. While we are a reliable partner for process development, authority, basic and detail engineering, as well as plant construction and commissioning, we enable our customer to focus on the economic aspects and market-oriented implementation of their project. This saves valuable time for a profitable realization of the project.
Applications and Technology
Applications
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Our expertise is applied in a wide variety of sectors. Based on thermal, mechanical and chemical processes in process engineering, we offer solutions for the energy, waste, chemical and food industries.
Over the past two decades, we have accompanied and implemented more than 70 projects from engineering to final commissioning.
Research
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- Basic research by customer
- On customer’s request, contract research by BDI
Process design
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- Carrying out further laboratory tests (if necessary)
- Process design, scale-up
- Pilot testing
- Analytical support
- Preparation of flow charts and balance sheets, economic feasibility studies
Authority engineering
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- Preparation of technical documentation for submission to authorities
- Layout design
- Calculation of emissions
- Submission of documents
- Logistics plan
Basic engineering
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- Modern tools such as ChemCad or Aspen for process simulations
- Creation of PIDs
- Preparation of detailed mass and energy balances
- Apparatus and equipment design
- Equipment specification for purchase
- Development of safety concept, HAZOP
Detail engineering
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- 3D installation and pipe routing, isometrics: walk-through, consideration of easy maintenance
- Profound experience in the selection of reliable equipment
- Detailed engineering
- Instrumentation and electrical engineering
- Automation with state-of-the-art solutions
Plant construction, assembly/installation
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- Management of construction site
- Mechanical and electrical assembly management
Start-up
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- Professional testing
- Safety check
- Chemical and PCS commissioning
- Operator training
- Optimization of operation regarding use of operating materials, yield increase and mode of operation for maximum profitability
After-sales service
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- Technical support
- Maintenance and spare parts management
- Maintenance management
Selected Projects
Tetraphos
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Phosphorus recycling from sewage sludge ash
Project management, basic and detail engineering (partly), installation supervision and commissioning- Client: Remondis Aqua GmbH (DE)
- Technology: Development by Remondis
- Commissioning: End of 2019
- Location: Hamburg (DE)
- Capacity: 20,000 tons per year
- Raw material: Sewage sludge ash
- Product: Phosphoric acid
Astafit
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Algae cultivation and production of an algae-based food supplement
Research, process development, engineering, purchase, construction and commissioning- Customer: BDI-BioLife Science GmbH (AT)
- Technology: Algae reactors, proprietary development
- Commissioning: December 2018
- Location: Hartberg (AT)
- Capacity: 14 tons per year
- Raw material: Algae
- Product: Antioxidants as dietary supplements
BioDiesel
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Multi-Feedstock technology
Research, process development, engineering, purchase, construction and commissioning of several processes for special BioDiesel production steps- Client: BDI-BioEnergy International AG (AT)
- Technology: In-house development
- Commissioning: In many different countries all over the world
- Location: Raaba-Grambach (AT)
- Capacity: Up to 200,000 tons per year
- Raw materials: Waste oils, animal fats, vegetable oils
- Product: BioDiesel EN14214
bioCRACK
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Second-generation biofuel
Research, process development, engineering, purchase, construction, commissioning and production of a demonstration plant- Client: BDI-BioEnergy International AG (AT)
- Technology: Liquid-phase pyrolysis, proprietary development
- Commissioning: 2012
- Location: Schwechat (AT)
- Capacity: 8,000 tons per year
- Raw material: Residual oils from refineries, solid biomass
- Product: Diesel intermediate with a renewable component
BDI bioCRACK
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A unique process for the production of second-generation biofuels
Since 2010, the innovative bioCRACK technology has been essentially driven forward by the cooperative alliance between the Austrian mineral oil company OMV and BDI. OMV supported the project with resources and subsequent processing of the materials, as well as evaluation of the liquid products.
Awarded the VERENA Award 2016
bioCRACK technology
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In the patented bioCRACK process, solid biomass (e.g. wood or straw) is converted into short-chain hydrocarbons by liquid-phase pyrolysis, using a hot carrier oil at temperatures up to 400°C and under atmospheric pressure. Due to the interaction between biomass and heat transfer oil, hydrocarbons with a high hydrogen saturation are produced, which originate both from the carrier oil itself and from the biomass.
This innovative approach only gains economic importance through a decisive technical detail: In the bioCRACK process, a low-cost intermediate product from the petroleum refinery (Vacuum Gas Oil - VGO) is used as heat carrier oil. Normally, VGO is converted only to a small extent into diesel fuel and increasingly into short-chain gasoline, which cannot be sold in this quantity in Europe and must therefore be exported.
The bioCRACK technology additionally achieves a significant advantage in increasing diesel production from VGO. We offer this unique, patented technology for petroleum refineries to generate second-generation biofuels.
Significant advantages:
- Realization with minimum technical effort and cost-effective operation
- High raw material flexibility and fast implementation
- Direct feed of the end product into the refinery
- Direct sales of the produced fuel via existing sales channels
- Greenhouse gas (GHG) savings of up to 85 percent according to a study by Joanneum Research (2015)
- Energy recovery or further processing into valuable by-products such as lean gas and pyrolysis products (pyrolysis oil, coal)
Selected Project:
Cooperation with the Austrian mineral oil company OMV-
Pilot plant fully integrated into OMV refinery
- Pilot plant fully integrated into OMV refinery
- Project duration: 2012-2014
- Project costs: 7 million euros (incl. government support from the Austrian Climate and Energy Fund)
- Raw materials: Lignocellulosic biomass, VGO
- Input capacity: 2.4 tons of biomass per day
- Initial capacity: 500 tons of second-generation fuel per year
- Products: Raw diesel, bio-coal, bio-oil