The company has implemented its enzymatic biodiesel processing technology at Blue Sun St. Joe Refinery, which produces very high quality biodiesel through the company’s process, which is more efficient in methanol recovery and use.
The quality of biodiesel has been further improved with the installation of a distillation system at the 30 million gallon per year refinery in 2013.
Blue Sun Energy CEO Leigh Freeman said the company has commercialized the enzymatic process technology and the plant is operating at full commercial scale.
"This process gives Blue Sun a clear competitive advantage in the market, allowing us to bring the absolute highest quality fuel to market using this industry leading technology.
"This achievement again shows Blue Sun’s ability to identify and commercialize the most relevant advanced technologies in fuel production," added Freeman.
The company has developed a new proprietary process for enzymatic biodiesel production to overcome the hurdles in an entirely new manufacturing process, which utilizes Novozymes’ Callera Trans L enzyme.
Blue Sun Energy vice president of technology and new business Sean Lafferty said the process for enzymatic transesterification improves the bottom line through lower costs and higher revenue.
"Blue Sun can use essentially any feedstock without limit to free-fatty-acid content. This reduces pre-treatment requirements and costs significantly.
"Blue Sun’s feedstock advantage alone can yield a savings of 10 cents per pound of feedstock, or 75 to 80 cents lower cost per gallon of finished biodiesel," added Lafferty.
The implementation, which is the first in the world of enzymatic transesterification at significant commercial scale, testifies another commercialization achievement for Blue Sun.
