New Earth is now offering consulting and process equipment skids for enzymatic biodiesel applications. Our team worked closely with engineers at Piedmont Biofuels, who pioneered enzymatic biodiesel production using both liquid and immobilized enzymes in the U.S. biodiesel industry starting in 2008. One of the patented technologies we offer is the FAeSTER process in continuous and batch process configurations.

The FAeSTER process is a patent pending, fully continuous esterification technology using immobilized or liquid enzymes.  The enzymes can be reused for multiple reactions, and we have achieved a catalyst cost of $0.15 per gallon processed feedstock.  This process is a direct replacement for acid esterification using sulfuric acid, or solid acid catalysts, and generates a dry (<1500ppm water), low FFA (<1%) feedstock ready for transesterification.  For very high FFA feedstocks like acid distillates or brown grease, this process is particularly cost effective.  What differentiates FAeSTER from normal enzymatic esterification is our ability to continuously remove moisture to drive the esterification reaction towards methyl ester production. Our first commercial installation funded by the United States Department of Energy is at Piedmont Biofuels in central North Carolina.

We are available to assist other biodiesel producers interested in implementing enzyme catalysts for existing or future production facilities. Our team has worked side by side with the enzymatic biodiesel process for over five years from inception to optimization to commercial viability.