The Neodiesel Revolution Heads Offshore: Benefuel, Felda Expand in Malaysia

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March 4, 2015

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by Jim Lane (Biofuels Digest) It’s New, it’s Neo — the neodiesel companies — brimming with technologies to create cleaner alternatives to a powerhouse fuel. They have the performance, half the carbon, and a range of low-cost feedstocks to choose from.

Now, neodiesel heads for Malaysia as a JV opens up ultra low-cost feedstocks with Benefuel’s ENSEL technology.

From Malaysia have come reports that the joint venture FGV Green Energy has acquired a 250,000 metric ton per year biodiesel plant in Kuantan Port, Malaysia and will retrofit the plant with Benefuel’s ENSEL technology.

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The important news to note is that, in addition to working together in FGV Green Energy, Benefuel and FGV have entered into a further agreement to develop and operate additional biodiesel projects in Southeast Asia. The joint venture will look to establish production facilities in strategic locations in Southeast Asia that have strong access to feedstock and finished product markets.

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Benefuel’s ENSEL technology is unique because it allows the use of lower cost, high free fatty acid (FFA) feedstocks such as animal tallow, unrefined oils, used vegetable oils or distillers corn oil. This is accomplished through the use of a solid catalyst that combines esterification and transesterification into a single step, which has been a long-standing goal of the biodiesel industry. The process also ensures the final product meets or exceeds all domestic and European biodiesel standards

The technology has raised so much interest that Benefuel and Flint Hills Resources (yes, the giant fossil-energy refiner, owned by Koch Industries) formed a JV known as Duonix to deploy the technology.

To date, FHR has been the first and primary customer, retrofitting its Beatrice, Nebraska biodiesel plant for a planned commencement of operations this summer (2015). READ MORE

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