The oleochemical plant located in Los Arcos (Navarre, Spain)
has an installed capacity of 28.000 tons per year
From our oleochemical plant we are able to manage waste in several ways: unfold, refine, and distil oils, fatty acids, and animal fats, concentrate and distil glycerin, among other activities.
Solartia offers integral solutions for the industry of biofuel production, ranging from the treatment of crude oils to different types of grease-industrial waste. The industrial technologies installed in Los Arcos for processing and treatment of waste allow us to make other biofuels projects compatible with our oleochemical project.
The plant has an available surface area of 10,000 m2 and has an annual production capacity of 28,000 tons of biodiesel or by-products, with the possibility of doubling production with slight modifications that do not paralyze its activity during application.
The production capacity here is modular, meaning that it can be separated into independent modules to create autonomous sections and ensure that the plant does not stop due to interruptions.
The basic raw material for the manufacture of biodiesel is vegetable oil and, more recently, waste oils. Vegetable oil reacts with alcohol (methanol) in the presence of a catalyst (sodium methylate), resulting in biodiesel and, as a by-product, glycerin. It is of vital importance to obtain a perfectly pure oil, eliminating from it other components (gums, fatty acids, etc.) and impurities produced in its extraction process, storage and transport.
Oils, fatty acids and residual fats, depending on their origin and nature, need to be treated with different chemical products to adapt them for use in the production process. We have developed a specific pre-treatment for each type of waste in order to expand its range of raw materials. This integration of processes makes the oleochemical plant an environmentally committed and sustainable company.
Regarding efficiency, and aligned to the company's corporate social responsibility declaration, the energy generated by some equipment is redirected to be used in others such as air conditioning of areas, heat exchanges, and water recovery to reintegrate it into the system and reuse. The plant is powered by our own solar power plants in Spain.