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Clean Energy for Change
By Rogelio Lozada A little history:
How is biodiesel produced? Biodiesel’s benefitsThe driving forces Biodiesel is a clean fuel, renewable and biodegradable, its name is derived from BIO, which means life in Greek. This fuel can be produced from a variety of vegetable oils, animal fats and recycled cooking vegetable oil. Biodiesel is blended with diesel from oil (diesel fossil), to create different mixtures, which are superior in quality pure fossil diesel. The typical mixture are B2, B5, B10 and B20 and of course pure biodiesel B100. These percentages Biodiesel mean content in mixture, for example the B20 has a 20% Biodiesel and 80% fossil diesel, it can usually be used in engines diesel without modification.
Diesel is the term used for compression fuel engines invented by the German Rudolf Diesel, who patented it in 1892; between the different fuels options that he considered to use for his engine were the vegetable oils; the idea was taken up with great force, especially in Europe, where it is for about 10 years under the name of Biodiesel and blends mentioned above. In the United States the Biodiesel production begins in the 90, made from oil soy, animal fat and kitchen’s oil recycled. The National Biodiesel Board has reported a production of 500,000 gallons in 1999 in the United States, only 8 years later (2007) the production had reached 450 million gallons. He also notes that for use in diesel engines must comply with ASTM D6751 specification (American Society for Testing and Materials).
The biodiesel production is based on a chemical process called “Transesterification” in which the oil plant or fat reacts with an alcohol (the most used is methanol) in the presence of a catalyst, which allows the production of biodiesel (Methyl esters) and glycerin as a sub product, the latter is widely used in the pharmaceuticals industry.
Undoubtedly, the advantages of biodiesel are numerous, protruding from substantially the following: It contains no sulfur and hydrocarbons aromatics that are potentially carcinogens; having no sulfur does not generated sulfur dioxide emissions that cause acid rain, reducing particulate issued in gas engines. The CO2 carbon dioxide emitted in the atmosphere during combustion is the same that captured the oil plant used to extract the oil for growth, so the combustion of biodiesel does not produce greenhouse effect (helps meet the Kyoto Protocol). Biodiesel is nontoxic and biodegradable. In only twenty days 98.3% is degraded; it has a high inflammation point which makes it safer than traditional diesel, it is handling safer not only for storage but also for transportation. Biodiesel’s energy balance compared with the ethanol and diesel oil is positively, according to the Department Agriculture Minnesota, for each unit of energy required to produce biodiesel, is possible to earn 2.5 to 3.2 units of energy vs. the ethanol, witch generate 1.34 and the conventional diesel which generate 0843. There are different seeds plant supplying oil or raw material for biodiesel processing; the attached table, shows the oil yield per seeds type and cultivated acre. In the U.S. the primary source of raw material supplies is the soy oil, as this is an industry highly developed, in the EU is more common use canola and Asia and for the rest of America the oil palm, which is considered as the ideal provision for biodiesel production, because its positive energy balance and high yield per acre cultivated.
The biodiesel produced from vegetable cooking oils is called first generation and has questions for both, the environmental effects on food supply and for affecting prices on the food supply, additionally it affect prices in this sector because they compete in the energy sector. The second generation of biodiesel in developing, use oil inedible plants, between the higher yielding are included jatropha and cultured algae, these sources supply already have production initiatives in the Florida’s State, where are exceptional conditions cultivation: land and abundantly solar energy. Now, one might ask whether cultivation of these energy sources and its conversion to biodiesel can be a support the provision and the partial replacement hydrocarbons (diesel) that we imported from other states and the response is Yes, there are plans and incentives for part of the Government to support production, replacement and use of biodiesel in the heavy transport vehicles, buses schools, marinas, etc. as well as electricity generation. The conventional diesel consumption in the Florida’s State reaches 2,500 million gallons per year, which is supplied through different ports, mainly 3
of them. The installed capacity for the biodiesel production is 48 million gallons per year, hence the great opportunity to cover the market potential for developing production of biodiesel projects, which would additionally favored by the geographic location of State to allow the material supply imported raw as it develops potential no comestibles oil production, that could be it algae, jatropha or other crops with high yield vegetable oils.
The biodiesel industry has several elements that drive its development, such as: • Government incentives and future use requirements (mandates). • Partial substitution of imported oil for increased national security. • Improvement of current conditions environment. • Improving the state’s economy, such as employment generation. • Decrease the energy dependence. It is important to mention that use of biodiesel in aforementioned mixtures brings the benefits indicated but it is necessary to ensure that this fuel meets ASTM specification and its quality is supported by certifications such as B-9000 (Accreditation Program National Biodiesel). The construction and development Biodiesel facilities require the discipline of execution a project in all its breadth, which consider the current and future variables to achieve the desired objective. The feed stock contributes with 80% of costs (not with the used of cooking oil case), the control production and process optimization through the technology used is the key to success this initiative. Chemical Engineer, energy area’s consultant, over 32 years of broad experience in refining Oil and Petrochemicals specialist, Planning areas, Strategic Development, Projects, Technical Assistance, Health, Safety and Environment in refineries. Director and Technology Advisor in the Biodiesel Company, for Natural Resources of America (NAROA).
Technology Company Looking for Partner Our client is one of the longest-running biodiesel technology companies in the world today with a successful track record of building and turning around biodiesel plants. As a leading biodiesel technology and equipment provider, they provide their clients with expertise in developing and optimizing refineries and operations throughout North America and beyond. They are an ideal partner to build a turnkey biodiesel refinery or to turn around a failed one, to help them overcome a specific engineering or process challenge , and also to collect and process variable feedstock such as used restaurant oils or brown grease into usable fuel source, they can do it all—and more. Since its founding in 2004, they have completed construction of 15 biodiesel refining plants on three continents, and also retrofitted and turned around 4 plants in the US. In the United States their plants can be found in eight different locations from coast to coast. Every year, biodiesel plants built by them, eliminate millions of tons of greenhouse gas emissions to help protect the environment, meet increasing energy demands, and create jobs to boost regional economies.
The Company is built on decades of research,proprietary technology and extensive experience building and operating plants helping them achieve industry-leading results and increased value on investments. They are fully committed to serving its clients through a comprehensive partnerships that can improve the effectiveness, efficiency and profitability of their operations from the concept and design stage all the way through to construction and post-build process engineering and support. In the last three years, they developed a plant for their own operation. They project this facility to be their main research and training installation.
The Company’s immediate expansion program is to build and operate 10 new Biodiesel plants that produce 10 MM gal/year (expandable to 20 MM) producing a total of 200 MM per year or more, depending on market growth . With its patented and trademarked proprietary technology, their goal is to produce, market, distribute and sell Biodiesel in the United States and other countries where there is the possibility of setting up other plants for the marketing of the product. The major advantage of the new technology is that it reduces the per gallon cost of production by 30% compared to existing traditional technologies.
Its innovative biodiesel technology is a single-stage process that eliminates esterification and trans-esterification, and puts no limit on feedstock FFA levels. The process requires an extremely small footprint and very low capital expenses
compared to conventional methods. In addition, it completely eliminates the need for traditional homogenous catalyst. In short, it cuts the cost of traditional biodiesel refining by a third. And also it requires little time for operators with no background in biodiesel processing to learn how to run the process. In the newly developed processing method, the feedstock is mixed with methanol and is introduced into a continuous column in a supercritical environment.
The temperature and pressure are maintained in such a way during the process that
the feedstock completely converts to biodiesel in a few minutes, with minimal or no loss in yield. Also the water content of the feedstock has no effect on the process. For a typical 10 MMg/y plant, the production cost using this technology is 35 to 38 cents a gallon (based on typical per unit cost). That includes the cost of chemicals, energy, maintenance and payroll. For a comparable traditional plant, the cost is 50 cents a gallon. Yearly savings are estimated at $ 1.2MM coupled with lower production costs is the capability to process higher FFA (free fatty acids) feedstock, up to 100%, and limiting yield losses to under 2 percent for high FFA feedstock.
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