Case Study – Production Plant: BIOX

September 23, 2005

In mid-2004 BIOX Corporation, a renewable energy company, contacted Zeton to begin engineering for a modular commercial biodiesel plant to be located in Hamilton, Ontario (Canada). A key advantage of the BIOX Corporation’s process technology is that it can produce biodiesel from a variety of different feedstocks – ranging from pure seed oils to animal fats to recovered vegetable oils. The feedstock’s flexibility was an important consideration for the design component of the modular production plant.

Project: Modular Biodiesel Plant for BIOX Corporation in Hamilton (Canada)

The Design and Build: Modular Systems for Production Plants

As originally conceived, the production plant consisted of 21 process modules including feed, reaction, separation and product purification steps.

The Zeton team led by Chris Brown and Gary Chu completed Phase I of the project in late 2004, working closely with AMEC who were responsible for all site and outside battery limits (OSBL) work scope. Phase II of the modular system (detailed design, procurement, fabrication and factory testing) began before the end of the year.

The plant modules were shipped in stages to the plant site from late 2005 to early 2006 with an overall project schedule of approximately 18 months, with Zeton’s project team supporting BIOX Corporation during Phase III (shipping, installation and start up) of the project.

Due to the project’s size and projects already underway at Zeton’s facility at that time, the project was built at a neighbouring facility in Ontario – while this additional layer of planning was presented for the project teams, the resulting success clearly demonstrated the benefits of Zeton’s flexible project approach and provided proof of our ability to execute multiple concurrent modular plant projects.

In early 2007 BIOX Corporation announced it had successfully completed commissioning its first commercial-scale biodiesel production facility in Hamilton, Ontario. The 67 million litre annual nameplate capacity plant is one of the largest continuous flow biodiesel production facilities currently operating in the world.

“Zeton was extremely efficient with project execution, providing a ‘One Stop Shop’ for engineering, procurement and assembly. Without such efficiencies our entry into the Biodiesel market would have taken much longer.”
– Neil Vanknotsenburg, Vice President of Projects, BIOX Corporation

Learn more about fully scalable pilot plants and modular system solutions that can get your technology to market – connect with Zeton today.