Features:

From fries to fuel

25th September, 2007

German-based Petrotec is one of the leading biodiesel producers in Europe, and stands out with its ability to handle difficult-to-process raw materials. These include those with a high fatty acid content such as yellow grease, (used cooking oil) and animal fat. Petrotec has been involved in the production of biodiesel since 2000 and is one of the pioneers of the biodiesel industry. The roots of the company go back as early as 1991 when it started as a waste management company specialising in collecting and recycling yellow grease. In 1998 the company began developing a proprietary process for the production of biodiesel. Since 2000, Petrotec has been producing biodiesel using a genuine multifeedstock technology. This enables the company to treat an extremely wide variety of feedstocks, such as yellow grease and animal fats as well as virgin vegetable oils. Petrotec has continually increased the capacity of its biodiesel plant from 12,000 tonnes (in 2000) to 85,000 tonnes a year in 2006. By the end of 2007, the capacity will reach 185,000 tonnes.

In a short period of time a waste management business turned into a high profile biodiesel production company. The main success drivers have been the company’s expertise, and its own technology, which has allowed Petrotec to produce a high quality biodiesel in compliance with the fierce European quality standard EN 14214. Petrotec is a founding member of the German Biofuel Industry Association and is a public listed company on the German Stock Exchange.

The biodiesel market in Germany has grown rapidly over the last few years. The production capacity in 2004 was 1.2 million tonnes, 2.1 million in 2005 and 4.8 million in 2006. `Due to new legislation (the biofuels quota act and the energy tax act) growth has pretty much come to a standstill now,’ says company founder Roger Boeing. `The market is still split between B100 and B5 applications but with rising taxation on B100 biodiesel this market will presumably die out by the end of 2008.`

Genuine multi-feedstock

technology Petrotec’s multi-feedstock technology has continually been advanced in-house since 1998. Like other biodiesel producers that operate multifeedstock technology Petrotec is able to produce biodiesel from various pure vegetable oils including rapeseed oil, palm oil and soy oil. As opposed to many competitors, however, Petrotec is also in a position to produce biodiesel that is compliant with the European biodiesel norm EN 14214 from yellow grease and animal fats, as well as various fats and oils with a high fatty acid content. Depending on quality parameters, the feedstocks can also be blended, even though some ingredients reveal quality parameters that fail to meet the EN 14214 requirements, such as, for example, the iodine number.

In contrast to earlier years feedstock supply has become a hot issue. Petrotec is in a position to process a wide range of feedstocks, but for economic reasons the most predominant is yellow grease, which the company receives through a number of supply channels. That secures a flexible and independent demand position in the market for yellow grease. `Controlling your own sourcing makes life much easier,’ explains Boeing.

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