Madison Area Technical College dedicated its new biodiesel reactor, built in partnership with the University of Wisconsin-Madison to produce motor fuel blended from waste vegetable oil and methanol. The reactor will be used to educate MATC students in the production, use and quality control of biodiesel fuels and the maintenance of biodiesel-fueled engines and vehicles. At a news conference and dedication ceremony at MATC’s Truax location in Madison, students and faculty from the two colleges demonstrated how the reactor purifies cooking oil recovered from a restaurant’s deep fryer and blends it into a fuel that can operate a diesel-powered vehicle without engine modifications. A semi truck running on biodiesel fuel was then driven through a ceremonial banner, officially dedicating the reactor. UW-Madison engineering students designed and built the laboratory-scale reactor at the request of MATC”s Diesel Equipment Technology associate degree program. The goal is for students to synthesize and study various biodiesel fuel blends, stated project director Ken Walz, an MATC chemistry instructor. ldquo;The reactor will allow students to experiment with different feedstocks, catalysts, and processing temperatures to optimize biodiesel production.
In a professional biodiesel plant, NM30 catalyst (or methoxide), methyl alcohol and oil are pumped through a heat exchanger using three continuous dosage pumps, the mixture is heated to 75′C in a pressurized ultrasonic reactor at 200kPa. With a flow rate of 200l/hr the biodiesel mixture resides 15 minutes in a 50l tank after which it is released in a pressureless evaporation container where it flashes in methanol vapour and transesterified but not yet separated methylester and glycerol liquid. This mixture is then being separated using a high speed separator, after which the glycerine is neutralized and the biodiesel purified in a double Polarix resin tube. The evaporated methanol is guided back into the methanol tank.
The lower layer of the process is composed primarily of glycerine and other waste products. The top layer, a mixture of biodiesel and alcohol, is decanted. The excess alcohol can be distilled off, or it can be extracted with water. If the latter, the biodiesel should be dried by distillation or with a drying agent.
Biodiesel’s limited horizons raise the question of whether the fuel is worth subsidizing. Compared with other energy and agricultural subsidies, the cost of the federal biodiesel tax credit is a drop in the bucket, but because it’s indexed to consumption, the subsidy will grow with biodiesel output. While actual fuel costs per gallon are difficult to determine because buying arrangements differ among companies, calculations using the at-cost numbers show that moving to a B20 biodiesel blend would increase both average cost per trip and average cost per stop by approximately 6.3% for both broadliners and systems distributors. To restate the obvious, the economics are not there, nor are they expected to be any time soon.
Hackett gave this breakdown of biodiesel economics: in December 2007, soybean oil on the Chicago Board of Trade averaged 48 cents per pound, or $3.60 per gallon (one gallon equals 7.5 lbs.) compared with the average spot price for diesel fuel of $2.60 per gallon at the same time. Refining soybean oil into biodiesel costs about 50 cents a gallon. The dollar a gallon tax break brings pure biodiesel at cost to only 50 cents a gallon higher than petroleum diesel. Factoring in the blend, using B20, at 20% biodiesel and 80% petroleum, the approximate cost is 10 cents higher per gallon (20% of 50 cents equals 10 cents). Safeway decided to go ahead despite the higher cost. In line with the document, biodiesel (the domestic demand is estimated at more than 2 million tonnes a year) will be produced with a 5% additive of biofuel what will allow to save around 300 thousand tonnes of oil a year. The country is set to build the capacities to produce 100 thousand tons of methyl ether a year. According to specialists, such facilities can be created at Grodno Azot and Mogilevkhimvolokno which produce methanol which is necessary for bio-fuel production. The cost of the project is estimated at approximately $50 million.
Bottom line here is that biodiesel, like ethanol, is no panacea to petroleum dependency. It’s role should be understood, like ethanol’s, to be a regional one and also one of many alternative fuels that will in combination help lower but not eliminate dependence on petroleum. Only drastically reduced demand for petroleum fuel can truly help accomplish that.
Please take a look at these Biodiesel Videos. Biodiesel, made from vegetable oils or animal fats, can be blended with diesel fuel at any level. Unlike diesel, biodiesel is non-toxic, biodegradable, non-flammable and inexpensive to transform. The most dangerous part of making biodiesel is from the time the methanol is purchased to the time the methoxide is completely introduced into the oil. This is when the majority of the accidents have happened.
This is the time to be safety focused more than at any other time. A conservative approach would start with small quantities of biodiesel made with clean, unused oil, to test the process and practice. Make sure you read, re-read, and comply with all safety precautions and practices! After you practice making biodiesel in small quantities, you can start to think about setting up a larger processor, anywhere from 20 to 100 gallons, and making it in larger quantities.
Biodiesel is derived from domestic, renewable resources such as animal fats and plant oils. The manufacturing process converts oils and fats into chemicals called long chain mono alkyl estrs in a chemical process called transesterification. Transesterfication uses an alcohol such as methanol and a catalyst such as sodium hydroxide to convert raw fats and oils into a stable product, biodiesel. Different fats and vegetable oils produce somewhat different biodiesel fuels, but they all must meet the same biodiesel fuel standard. Biodiesel contains no petroleum, but is typically blended with petroleum-based diesel to create a biodiesel blend between 2-20%, although it can be used up to 100% in compression-ignition (diesel) engines with no major modifications.
Palm Oil Biodiesel is the name of a clean burning alternative fuel, produced from Palm Oil. Palm Oil Biodiesel contains no petroleum, but it can be blended at any level with petroleum diesel to create a biodiesel blend. It can be used in compression-ignition (diesel) engines with little or no modifications. Palm Oil Biodiesel is simple to use, biodegradable, nontoxic, and essentially free of sulfur and aromatics.
B100 biodiesel and biodiesel blends may dissolve or dislodge the accumulated sediments in diesel storage tanks, pipes, fueling systems and engine fuel tanks. Dissolved or dislodged sediments can plug fuel filters and cause fuel injector failure. Existing tanks and transfer systems should be cleaned, dried, and inspected prior to introducing high percentage blends into the tank.
Biodiesel is produced from renewable resources such as vegetable oils (e.g. These feedstocks are used to manufacture a mixture of chemicals called fatty acid methyl esters (biodiesel). The chemical process is called “transesterification” (this should not be considered “refining” in same sense that petroleum is refined) and has been around since 1820’s. Majority inputs are 90% vegetable oils and animal fats and 10% alcohol. The majority outputs are 90% biodiesel and 10% glycerin.
1853-1976
Long before the advent of diesel engine, studies on conversion of vegetable oil into biodiesel were conducted in 1853 by the two scientists Duffy and Patrick. It was only on August 10, 1893 that Rudolf Diesel ran the first diesel engine at Augsburg, Germany and the day is still commemorated as the “International Biodiesel Day” every year in honor of that landmark event. In 1900 at the World Fair in Paris, Otto Company of France demonstrated a diesel engine that ran on peanut oil devised by Rudolf Diesel which was a pioneering effort in the development of biodiesel although strictly speaking it was not exactly biodiesel but biofuel since transesterification, the process for converting vegetable oil into biodiesel was unknown at that time. Rudolf Diesel being a visionary realized the important role the fuel made from biomass was going to play in future for running engines. However the makers of biofuel from vegetable oil were finding the process expensive and the petroleum industry took this opportunity to aggressively market petroleum diesel which was cheaper. Petroleum oil compared to vegetable oil was found to be less gelling and the diesel engines were modified accordingly by the manufacturers during the twenties to enable use of petroleum diesel. Biomass fuels like biodiesel as a result got shelved for many years and the manufacturing facilities fell into decay. In spite of this slump, the IC engines continued to use vegetable oil as fuel during the period from the twenties and up to the fifties in countries like the UK, France, Germany, Brazil, China and Japan. The first production of actual biodiesel was by Chavanne, a scientist at the University of Brussels in Belgium who got a patent for it in 1937. This patent was for the process of transesterification or alcoholysis by which vegetable oil was converted for use as fuel. The process involved treating vegetable oils with ethanol and methanol to replace glycerol with alcohol after separating fatty acid from the glycerol. This production process continued till the mid seventies.
1977-1989
A modified process of transesterification to produce biodiesel using ethanol was patented in 1977 by Parente, a Brazilian scientist. This process has since been recognized and accepted by the automobile industry as the standardized one for making biodiesel internationally. Another product ‘bio-kerosene’ by Tecbio owned by Parente has also been patented and certified by Boeing and NASA for use as aviation biodiesel. In 1979 a process was developed in South Africa whereby sunflower oil was converted to biodiesel by the process of transesterification. However it was not before 1983 that biodiesel suitable for use in automobile engine was produced, tested and accepted worldwide. The first plant using rapeseed oil to produce biodiesel at industrial scale was set up in 1989 by the Austrian firm Gaskoks.
1990-Present
Biodiesel plants started to be set up in many European countries from the early nineties. Continuous researches are being conducted to increase the proportion of the fuel up to 50% in combination with petroleum diesel. Service stations in Europe are selling 100% biodiesel. Minnesota in 2005 became the first state in the USA to stipulate minimum 2% biodiesel to be mixed in diesel fuel.
