Recent studies state that in economic haste to power vehicles with biofuel, crops productions now are geared away from food consumption. This disturbance in the law of supply and demand has forced institutions to look deeper into other options for fuel, bent toward making biodiesel from animal fat.
Other options must be furthered considering soy oil, chicken fat and tallow present potentials as biodiesels as well. Close to half of the projected over one billion gallons of biodiesel in 2012 could be attributed to biodiesel. Developing stories like Tyson Foods’ push for a renewable energy division could very well contribute over 2.3 billion pounds of chicken each year! Loosely said, when that time comes, Tyson Foods could produce 300 million gallons of biodiesel!
Even oil giant Conoco Phillips is looking seriously into a scheme with Tyson Foods, targeting production of 174m gallons of low-sulphur biodiesel. Conoco Phillips aim to benefit from the fat byproducts the cows, pigs and chickens which Tyson Foods processes into its finished products. At present, these byproducts are bought by the cosmetics and pet food industries. The new venture of both will find Tyson shipping a large part of animal fat to the refineries of Conoco Phillips for the latter to process it into biodiesel.
Many studies have stated animal fats perform better in biodiesel, prompting many private companies to venture or invest in companies producing animal fats. Commonly used animal fats tallow and lard are used for biodiesel because they are largely composed of saturated fatty acids. Other advantageous to this form of fuel is that animal fats have as high as 74 cetane numbers, translating to better diesel engine performance. Animal fat also lessens exhaust and emissions, have greater engine efficiency.
The cost issue is settled on animal fat as it results to better engine performance and competence. Moreover, biodiesel from animal fat has very minute harmful emissions and noise pollution when put against other forms of biodiesel.
True, the energy crisis won’t be solved with all the fat from thousands of slaughterhouses around the world. With such unbelievable usage of diesel use, the successes of making biodiesel from animal fats are just a pinkie! But if more and more countries and government pursue this method of fueling industries and cars alike, a great revolution would begin. Clearly, when biodiesel becomes a way of life for many cultures, greenhouse gas emissions are decreased and use of fossil fuels will be a thing of history.
Showing posts with label Biodiesel from Animal Fat. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Biodiesel from Animal Fat. Show all posts
Monday, August 24, 2009
Saturday, February 28, 2009
Making Biodiesel from Animal Fat
The same time as the prices for petroleum fuels are rising the demand for biodiesel is rising too which is very much obvious. But the consequence is the more biodiesel is produced the more expansive the renewable feedstock is going to be. And if we look for alternative feedstock to produce biodiesel, animal fat as a waste product seems to be our cheapest and available at huge scale.
To process animal fat into biodiesel usually we can use the following method, which is most common. For this an alkaline catalyst Sodium Hydroxide or Potassium Hydroxide is used. It is dissolved in methanol and, then, mixed with the feedstock. Making biodiesel from animal fat requires a lot of considerations.
Animal fat melts between 40 and 50 degree Celsius, but to avoid that the methanol evaporates – methanol starts to boil at 60 degree Celsius – and then, consequently, not enough methanol will be available for the transesterification the process temperature should always be kept under 60. Secondly, when processing animal fat into biodiesel this feedstock reacts very sensitive if we use just too much catalyst. The consequence is that easily so much soap is formed that the whole mixture turns into some kind of thick glob, which would ruin everything. And the more of the so-called Free Fatty Acids (FFA) we find in the animal feedstock the more soap is formed which results in production loss.
With the two-step-process the amount of FFA is first reduced in a pre-step using sulphuric acid as catalyst and methanol. Then, when the amount of FFA reached a level of less than 1% the normal alkaline-based process can take place using methanol and lye as catalyst, which would speed up the reaction. . Hence, it is always advisable to process a feedstock which has less than 1% FFA using the one-step-process. It is faster, cheaper and more biodiesel will be produced and in today’s world time is money.
But because animal fat turns very easily into a thick glob of soap if we use just too much lye the right amount of catalyst will be crucial for the production.
The biodiesel produced from animal fat has some other properties than the one produced from vegetable oil. First, after settling the glycerol from animal fat turns solid when it cools down. The same thing happens to the glycerol produced from palm oil. This circumstance needs some special considerations when settling because cold and solid glycerol can’t be drained from the bottom of the settle tank.
Second, in contrast to biodiesel produced from vegetable oil the freezing point of biodiesel from animal fat is much higher. This means that the cold filter plugging point (CFPP) can be – depending on the fat the biodiesel is produced from – between 15 and 20 degree Celsius. In order to run cars on biodiesel produced from animal fat also in other seasons than summer it is necessary to blend the biodiesel from animal fat with biodiesel produced from, e.g., rapeseeds. A percentage of 10 to 15% biodiesel from animal fat seems to be appropriate. Biodiesel produced from animal fat is, therefore, the perfect fuel to admix and use.
To process animal fat into biodiesel usually we can use the following method, which is most common. For this an alkaline catalyst Sodium Hydroxide or Potassium Hydroxide is used. It is dissolved in methanol and, then, mixed with the feedstock. Making biodiesel from animal fat requires a lot of considerations.
Animal fat melts between 40 and 50 degree Celsius, but to avoid that the methanol evaporates – methanol starts to boil at 60 degree Celsius – and then, consequently, not enough methanol will be available for the transesterification the process temperature should always be kept under 60. Secondly, when processing animal fat into biodiesel this feedstock reacts very sensitive if we use just too much catalyst. The consequence is that easily so much soap is formed that the whole mixture turns into some kind of thick glob, which would ruin everything. And the more of the so-called Free Fatty Acids (FFA) we find in the animal feedstock the more soap is formed which results in production loss.
With the two-step-process the amount of FFA is first reduced in a pre-step using sulphuric acid as catalyst and methanol. Then, when the amount of FFA reached a level of less than 1% the normal alkaline-based process can take place using methanol and lye as catalyst, which would speed up the reaction. . Hence, it is always advisable to process a feedstock which has less than 1% FFA using the one-step-process. It is faster, cheaper and more biodiesel will be produced and in today’s world time is money.
But because animal fat turns very easily into a thick glob of soap if we use just too much lye the right amount of catalyst will be crucial for the production.
The biodiesel produced from animal fat has some other properties than the one produced from vegetable oil. First, after settling the glycerol from animal fat turns solid when it cools down. The same thing happens to the glycerol produced from palm oil. This circumstance needs some special considerations when settling because cold and solid glycerol can’t be drained from the bottom of the settle tank.
Second, in contrast to biodiesel produced from vegetable oil the freezing point of biodiesel from animal fat is much higher. This means that the cold filter plugging point (CFPP) can be – depending on the fat the biodiesel is produced from – between 15 and 20 degree Celsius. In order to run cars on biodiesel produced from animal fat also in other seasons than summer it is necessary to blend the biodiesel from animal fat with biodiesel produced from, e.g., rapeseeds. A percentage of 10 to 15% biodiesel from animal fat seems to be appropriate. Biodiesel produced from animal fat is, therefore, the perfect fuel to admix and use.
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