Techno-economic assessment of hydrogenation-derived renewable diesel production from canola and camelina

In this study, production cost of hydrogenation-derived renewable diesel (HDRD) was estimated using canola oil and camelina oil as feedstocks. Process simulation models were built based on experimental data to simulate the conversion of vegetable oil to n-alkanes primarily in the range of C9-C22. These models were used to estimate capital and operating costs to conduct a techno-economic assessment for a range of HDRD plant sizes (15-1161 million L/year, or 250-20,000 bbl/day) operating in Western Canada. The minimum costs of production for HDRD occurred at a plant optimum size of 812 million L/year (14,000 bbl/day). These minimum costs were $1.09/L for HDRD from canola oil, $0.85/L for HDRD from camelina oil if camelina meal can be sold, and $1.37/L for HDRD from camelina oil if camelina cannot be sold. The HDRD production cost varies significantly for small production plants but only varies by a few cents per liter for plants in the size range of 290-1161 million L/year (5000-20,000 bbl/day). Sensitivity analyses conducted indicate that HDRD production cost is not very sensitive to capital and operating costs, but is highly sensitive to feedstock cost, solvent price, and solvent recovery.