With the cost of regular, fossil fuel-based, diesel passing $4.419 per gallon, diesel-dependent drivers across the U.S. are feeling a painful financial pinch, and economy-minded tinkerers are brewing their own biodiesel fuel from used cooking oil.
Demand for biodiesel as a viable petrochemical alternative is growing exponentially.
Traditional "garage-style" production methods such as settling tanks, filters and similar methods are slow, expensive, and cannot meet growing demand. In such a scenario, a Centrifuge for the Biodiesel manufacture becomes of great help.
A centrifuge can be used for continuous separation of:
1. Pre-treatment of feedstock to separate solids, water, degumming, and free-fatty acid process from feedstock. Glycerin separation- Make EN/ASTM specifications on free glycerin right out of the centrifuge, prior to wet or dry washing.
2. Water wash separation- Separate free water from the biodiesel. In some cases, achieve EN/ASTM spec. on moisture without the use of a dryer or evaporator.
3. Dry Wash solids separation- to separate magnesium silicate continuously with no filter media to blind, and less labor-intensive.
4. Purification of glycerin- for separation of catalyst/salts and FFA’s.
There is simply no better way to make quality biodiesel quickly than teaming biodiesel reactors with the biodiesel centrifuges. The units are high capacity and are designed to work 24 hours a day for year after year. They are designed to be affordable as well as efficient. A great purchase for any biodiesel business, and at a price as cheap as settling tanks, thus making them a "no brainer" purchase.
The centrifuges are specifically designed for instantaneous and continuous separation of biodiesel/glycerin, as well as pre-treatment separation of water, oil and solids from waste vegetable oils. New centrifuges are CE-approved, with all stainless steel construction generating over 6,000 x G-force!
Flow rates of centrifuges are available from 2000 L/hr - 100,000 L/hr. Manual clean or automatic self-cleaning machines are also available at various locations.
A biodiesel centrifuge is more efficient when separating glycerin from biodiesel. Centrifuges can immediately increase production output by decreasing production lead times. What takes many hours for gravity to separate down to EN/ASTM specifications, a centrifuge can separate instantly in seconds.
Biodiesel centrifuges are ways of making the biodiesel production process happen faster. Under most circumstances biofuel has to "settle" for 12-24 hours to make sure the glycerin is fully out of the biofuel. This process is not convenient for many of those involved in the production of biodiesel though, and so many of them invest in a biodiesel centrifuge.
The settling process uses one of nature’s gifts to us - gravity. The value of the gravity used by settling is 1G (one time gravity).
A biodiesel centrifuge is a mechanical device that spins the glycerin and other impurities out of bio diesel (the same way a washing machine rotates to dry clothes when on the "spin" cycle). By spinning at very high speed our biodiesel centrifuges can reach up to 40,000G (forty thousand times gravity) and so can achieve the settling process that normally requires one day in just a few seconds. Our biodiesel centrifuges can separate the glycerin from biofuel at the rate of up to several thousand litres per hour (one US gallon = 3.785 litres). Thus Biodiesel Centrifuges are indispensible accessories of a Biodiesel producing system.
Thursday, April 23, 2009
Tuesday, April 14, 2009
How does Biodiesel Systems Work?
Production methods of Biodiesel are generally of great significance as everything depends on the efficiency of the producing systems. Here are a few ways in which it works.
The most common process being the Batch process. Care is taken to monitor the amount of water and free fatty acids in the incoming biolipid. If the free fatty acid level or water level is too high it may cause problems with soap formation and the separation of the glycerin by-product downstream. The Catalyst is then dissolved in the alcohol. This is done by the use of a standard agitator or mixer. The alcohol/catalyst mix is then charged into a closed reaction vessel and the biolipid (vegetable or animal oil or fat) is added. The system from here on is totally closed to the atmosphere to prevent the loss of alcohol. The reaction mix is kept just above the boiling point of the alcohol to speed up the reaction. Under normal conditions the reaction rate will double with every 10 °C increase in reaction temperature. Excess alcohol is normally used to ensure total conversion of the fat or oil to its esters.
The glycerin phase is much denser than biodiesel phase and the two can be gravity separated with the help of a centrifuge. Once the glycerin and biodiesel phases have been separated, the excess alcohol in each phase is removed with a flash evaporation process or by distillation. Care must be taken to ensure no water accumulates in the recovered alcohol stream. Once separated from the glycerin, the biodiesel is sometimes purified by washing gently with warm water to remove residual catalyst or soaps, dried, and sent to storage.
An alternative, catalyst-free method for transesterification uses supercritical methanol at high temperatures and pressures in a continuous process. In the supercritical state, the oil and methanol are in a single phase, and reaction occurs spontaneously and rapidly.
Ultra- and High Shear in-line or batch reactors allow production of biodiesel continuously, semi- continuously, and in batch-mode. This drastically reduces production time and increases production volume. Ultra – Shear, up to three sets of rotor and stator which converts mechanical energy to high tip speed, high shear stress, high shear-frequencies. The reaction takes place in the high-energetic shear zone of the Ultra- and High Shear mixer by reducing the droplet size of the immiscible liquids such as oil or fats and methanol.
In the ultrasonic reactor method, the ultrasonic waves cause the reaction mixture to produce and collapse bubbles constantly. This cavitation provides simultaneously the mixing and heating required to carry out the transesterification process.
The Microwave method is one in which microwave ovens are used to provide the heat needed in the transesterification process. The microwaves provide intense localized heating that may be higher than the recorded temperature of the reaction vessel.
These are basically how the Biodiesel systems work to produce the alternative energy source such as Biodiesel which might prove to be very crucial in the near future.
The most common process being the Batch process. Care is taken to monitor the amount of water and free fatty acids in the incoming biolipid. If the free fatty acid level or water level is too high it may cause problems with soap formation and the separation of the glycerin by-product downstream. The Catalyst is then dissolved in the alcohol. This is done by the use of a standard agitator or mixer. The alcohol/catalyst mix is then charged into a closed reaction vessel and the biolipid (vegetable or animal oil or fat) is added. The system from here on is totally closed to the atmosphere to prevent the loss of alcohol. The reaction mix is kept just above the boiling point of the alcohol to speed up the reaction. Under normal conditions the reaction rate will double with every 10 °C increase in reaction temperature. Excess alcohol is normally used to ensure total conversion of the fat or oil to its esters.
The glycerin phase is much denser than biodiesel phase and the two can be gravity separated with the help of a centrifuge. Once the glycerin and biodiesel phases have been separated, the excess alcohol in each phase is removed with a flash evaporation process or by distillation. Care must be taken to ensure no water accumulates in the recovered alcohol stream. Once separated from the glycerin, the biodiesel is sometimes purified by washing gently with warm water to remove residual catalyst or soaps, dried, and sent to storage.
An alternative, catalyst-free method for transesterification uses supercritical methanol at high temperatures and pressures in a continuous process. In the supercritical state, the oil and methanol are in a single phase, and reaction occurs spontaneously and rapidly.
Ultra- and High Shear in-line or batch reactors allow production of biodiesel continuously, semi- continuously, and in batch-mode. This drastically reduces production time and increases production volume. Ultra – Shear, up to three sets of rotor and stator which converts mechanical energy to high tip speed, high shear stress, high shear-frequencies. The reaction takes place in the high-energetic shear zone of the Ultra- and High Shear mixer by reducing the droplet size of the immiscible liquids such as oil or fats and methanol.
In the ultrasonic reactor method, the ultrasonic waves cause the reaction mixture to produce and collapse bubbles constantly. This cavitation provides simultaneously the mixing and heating required to carry out the transesterification process.
The Microwave method is one in which microwave ovens are used to provide the heat needed in the transesterification process. The microwaves provide intense localized heating that may be higher than the recorded temperature of the reaction vessel.
These are basically how the Biodiesel systems work to produce the alternative energy source such as Biodiesel which might prove to be very crucial in the near future.
Friday, April 10, 2009
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