Research & technical development
Renewable raw materials and more own products
Proviron’s recent research efforts were prominently focused on renewable raw materials. This raised new challenges, if only for the strongly varying composition and quality of the raw materials. After all, these are natural products. Proviron has succeeded in controlling these challenges in the short term, which characterises the flexibility and problem solving capacity of management and employees. Moreover, more attention is paid to the development of our own products as well as to the development and optimisation of processes, a discipline in which Proviron has had a long and outstanding tradition. For this reason our team of members with a chemical training has grown considerably.
Some recent research highlights with sustainability as a recurring theme:
Biodiesel
An existing, yet totally refurbished unit in Ostend will produce biodiesel from mid 2007. Annual production capacity will be 120,000 tonnes. The process was developed by Proviron and does not produce any waste, which makes additional waste water treatment superfluous. The process is fully integrated within the company’s existing energy requirements: it uses surplus heat, created in other units on site. This is one of the qualities, which distinguish the Proviron process as a low variable cost unit, making it competitive even compared with much larger installations.
Glycerine
An interesting biodiesel by-product is glycerine. This simple but interesting molecule is obtained by using renewable raw materials. Glycerine opens up new perspectives for the manufacturing of several interesting products, including new additives for the production of plastics.
Provifrost
Provifrost is a completely new development, done in co-operation with the University of Ghent. This is an ecological successor to the traditional de-icing products for airport runways. These “traditional” products are quite effective but organically affect sewage water in the area. The water consequently needs to be treated. The new Provifrost uses bacterial components that biologically break down the product after use. Because of its unique concept, Provifrost is being patented.
Aquaculture
With an eye to the distant future, Proviron is intensively researching sources of renewable raw materials in co-operation with universities. This is examining the potential of biological feedstock, which can offer an excellent yield of energy-rich material per hectare. This includes an additional field of research.
On-site H2S production
In a unit, which amongst others uses hydrogen sulphide (H2S) as a feedstock, this H2S is now produced locally and immediately applied in the process. The advantages are ob-vious: no road transport and hardly any storage, both of which reduce costs.
Expansion laboratory facilities
It is not surprising to learn that the multiple new and diverse research efforts have led to an expansion of the research team. In a year and a half some €400,000 were invested in additional research capacity. Also, the number of research personnel was considerably increased to support fully the development of new product lines.