Full Project Services From Conceptual to EPC for Renewable Fuels and Biofuels

Fluor designs and constructs renewable fuel and biofuel facilities, both chemical-route and biological-route plants.

These client facilities produce a range of renewable fuels and first- and second-generation biofuels, such as biodiesel, renewable diesel, bioethanol and biojet fuel. They use numerous renewable feedstocks, such as fats, oils, algae and cellulosic biomass.

Fluor's renewable-fuel related technologies experience includes hydrotreating, transesterification, Fischer-Tropsch (FT), methanol-to-gasoline (MTG), gasification, cellulose hydrolysis, fermentation, and biomass handling and pretreatment (hydrolysis).

Fluor Solutions

There are many technologies that can be used to produce renewable fuels or biofuels. Fluor performs independent assessments to help identify the best technologies for client projects and then conducts feasibility studies with only limited support from the licensor. Fluor draws on deep cross-industry expertise to provide the most suitable solution for each client.

Cross-industry Expertise

  • Material handling
  • Pulp and paper processing
  • Reactor engineering
  • Chemical purification
  • Refining
  • Industrial fermentation
  • Pyrolysis and gasification
  • Waste treatment

Full EPC Services

Fluor delivers renewable fuel and biofuel projects from initial technology development through commercial plant construction. Fluor's experts work with each client team to identify their goals, select the best project execution model, address their technology needs, reduce overall energy consumption, decrease material cost and repurpose existing facilities to increase profitability. Cost and schedule are always a focus when designing and building any facility. Fluor is committed to embracing client business drivers, be they cost optimization or speed to market, and then delivering successful projects.

Fluor delivers renewable fuel and biofuel projects across the entire life cycle.

Front-end Services

  • Technology feasibility studies
  • Economic evaluations
  • Conceptual design
  • Commercial scale-up using pilot plant data

Project Services

  • Process design
  • Project management
  • Site selection
  • Asset optimization
  • Engineering, procurement & construction (EPC)
  • Start-up & commissioning

Fluor's Renewable Fuels Technology and Expertise

Renewable Fuels from Fats and Oils (HEFA/HVO)

  • Hydrotreating fats and oils to renewable diesel and jet (e.g., Ecofining™ and HydroFlex™)
  • Fat and oil pre-treating and purification
  • Grassroots and revamp plants

Renewable Fuels from Syngas

  • Fischer-Tropsch with hydrocracking
  • Methanol and dimethyl ether (DME)
  • MTG and Topsoe integrated gasoline (TIGAS™)

Syngas Production

  • Biomass gasification
  • Syngas cleaning and treating

Fuel Recovery and Purification

  • Distillation and extraction
  • Absorption and adsorption
  • Ion exchange and membranes
  • Filtration and centrifuges

Fermentation

  • Fermentor modeling and scale-up
  • Large-scale fermentor design
  • Process design and optimization
  • Large-scale steam-in-place (SIP) and clean-in-place (CIP) systems

Biomass Preparation

  • Bulk storage
  • Biomass and municipal solid waste (MSW) handling
  • Pretreatment and hydrolysis

Power Generation

  • Combined heat and power (CHP)
  • Fluidized bed boilers
  • Fuel cells biogas and bio-H2O

Scale-up and Commercialization

  • Pilot and demonstration plant strategy
  • Conceptual design and economics
  • Process optimization
  • Pilot and demonstration plant design and EPC

Location Strategy

  • Plant site location
  • Strategic incentive negotiation

Technology Development & Pilot/Demonstration Units

  • Thermodynamic modeling
  • Reaction kinetics and deactivation modeling
  • Unit operations selection
  • Hydrodynamic considerations
  • Process flow and control scheme development
  • Materials of construction selection