Refining

D1 Oils is building its biodiesel refining capacity in the UK in advance of the first deliveries of its own supplies of crude jatropha oil. We expect the first supplies of jatropha oil to be produced in the second half of 2008.

Central to our developing refinery business is the new 'D1 30', a flexible, modular biodiesel refinery. The D1 30 is a proprietary modular biodiesel plant of D1 Oils, which converts refined vegetable oil into biodiesel. The vegetable oil is reacted with methanol to form biodiesel and glycerol in the presence of an alkali catalyst.

The D1 30 can produce 10,000 tonnes of biodiesel per year from a range of vegetable oil feedstocks using a continuous process.

The D1 30's technology and processes are proprietary and are the result of many man years of research and development in the UK. The D1 30 is an improved and debottlenecked version of D1's first biodiesel refinery unit, the 8,000 tonne capacity D1 20. D1 has operated four D1 20 units at its Teesside site since mid-2006.

The D1 30 can successfully refine a range of vegetable oils, including rapeseed, soy, palm and jatropha to European standard EN14214 biodiesel. Our trials have demonstrated that our proprietary refining and pre-processing technology is capable of dealing with a range of potential food and non-food grade feedstocks.

The D1 30 can be used as a standalone refinery or multiple modules can be used to scale up refining capacity as required. Each modular unit is assembled off-site and brought to the site as a complete unit, allowing for increased speed of construction.

We expect to deploy our modular D1 30 refineries into our regional operations around the world.