BayFAME®

Costs and Savings

The capital investment costs for the esterification process vary depending on your requirements with regard to feedstock, overall ca pacity, biodiesel process and fl exibility. Costs for a typical installation of a 2-step configuration with methanol processing will range from € 3.5 mln to € 4.5 mln for 100,000 t/year or € 1.5 mln to € 2.0 mln for 20,000 t/year, but will be depending on local conditions as available infrastructure and buildings, local standards and codes, labor market etc.

Typical components of the operating costs are depreciation, catalyst, utilities (steam, electricity and cooling water), maintenance and labor, though most likely the additional esterification unit can be easily run by the personnel already working on site.

Overall the savings using an FFA rich feedstock with the Bayer Technology Services esterification technology BayFAME are significant compared to conventional feedstocks like rapeseed or soybean oil. Typically, a price difference of about 40 €/t pays off for the costs of depreciation and operation.