PRETREATMENT OF ANIMAL AND VEGETABLE WASTE FATS FOR RENEWABLE FUELS PROCESSING

It is incumbent upon renewable fuel producers to supplement feedstocks through the utilization of waste oils which have the added benefit of a low carbon intensity rating (CI). Examples include used cooking oil (UCO), animal fat,yellow grease, brown grease and poultry grease. To date, these have proved to be very problematic feedstock oils and traditional methods of remediation fail to remove the impurities to acceptable levels in an economically viable fashion. VFT develops its proprietary Fiber Reactor technology,protected by a global patent portfolio (including patents specific to the desired application) for the efficient and economical valorization of low CI score waste fats as feedstock oils to produce renewable fuels which does not require centrifuge or bleaching clays.VFT will leverage the expertise of key personnel and experience garnered during similar efforts to remove impurities from distiller's corn oil, an effort which was successfully transitioned from bench to a commercially operating technology package. VFT will seek to transition from TRL 4 to TRL 6 for the pretreatment of waste oil feedstocks during the Phase I effort. This will be accomplished by pursuing 3 broad technical objectives.Technical Objective 1: Benchtop chemical treatment development on commercially relevant waste oil feedstocks to bring chemical impurities within specifications of renewable fuel producersTechnical Objective 2: Transition benchtop chemistry development to Fiber Reactor technologyTechnical Objective 3: Scale Fiber Reactor waste oil treatment process to beta prototype pilot systemFinal Spec Limits on PretreatedFeedstocks Include:FFA <20% ; Total Metals <10ppm; Sodium <2ppm; Sulfur <100ppm; Nitrogen <350ppm; Chloride <50ppm;no free water;Unsaponifiables <1.0 wt%; Insoluble impurities <0.05wt%; polyethylene <50ppm