It is time that we all face the truth that our oil resources will be depleted in less than a decade and all the benefits that we have reaped from this oil since date will vanish in a wisp of smoke. With fuel prices rising every year due to the decrease in natural oil resources one day will come when fuel will be costlier than diamond and we will be left with nothing. But this fate can be stopped if we become aware and start using biodiesel fuels to preserve mineral oil for functions that are extremely necessary for human kind and cannot do without mineral oil.
Biodiesel fuel is therefore the alternative fuel that we should use. You may say, but I know nothing about it, and so we are here to give you more information on biodiesel fuel so that you can cheaply and effectively run your car and other machines without damaging the environment at all.
Benefits Of Biodiesel Fuels:
A biodiesel fuel is essentially a non-petroleum fuel that has a long chain of alkyl esters. This fuel is produced from vegetable oil by its transesterification and can be used in most engine vehicles even if they are unmodified ones. There are vehicles that are designed to run only on biodiesel fuel but it can be used even if the vehicle is not made to run on it. It is a clean fuel that is an excellent alternative to petroleum.
In fact a biodiesel fuel is made from matter that is one hundred percent renewable. Moreover this fuel can actually be used in combination with petroleum if say your car doesnot support running entirely on it and needs some amount of petroleum. However pure biodiesel can only be used in diesel cars while petrol run cars will require blending like B20 or B50 etc.
You may feel that this fuel is actually like any vegetable oil fuel that has come up in recent years as an alternative fuel. It is not so and actually it is much different and more efficient a fuel than vegetable oil fuel. The former can only be used in combustion-ignition type engines while biodiesel fuel can be used in any engine, in pure form or blended form. This fuel is also very good for human health. For example it has cleared all the health effecting tests that any fuel has to clear; it meets the standards of non-polluting or rather polluting the environment to a bare minimum and has been literally termed environment friendly.
All these issues kept in mind; a biodiesel fuel is actually the best alternative fuel available and can be got anywhere. However, the price is a tad more than normal conventional fuel since the demand for the fuel is not much. But with the way in which things are going it is sure that the demand for the fuel will increase making it the fuel of the future.
Sumber : http://biodieselprocessor.org/
Welcome to Extreme Biodiesel, home of the "Extractor", our standard water-wash processor, and the "Extreme Extractors", with our exclusive 2 and 5 hour waterless filtration systems.
Our new "Extreme Mini-Refineries" produce at least 600 gallons of biodiesel per day! We can also custom-build larger processors to accommodate your biodiesel needs.
After years of research and development, Extreme Biodiesel offers the finest constructed and most user-friendly processors in the biofuel industry. We are the cutting edge leaders in new technology and will continue to achieve technological advances in biodiesel production in our on-site laboratory.
At Extreme Biodiesel, we use only the finest components in constructing biodiesel processors. By using polyethylene and polypropylene materials, all of our fittings and hoses are biodiesel compatible. Unlike many biodiesel product manufacturers, we do not use white PVC, galvanized pipe or rubber hoses/tubing in our construction as these materials will eventually degrade, swell, crack and leak. The Apollo brass valves we use are made of the finest materials: including stainless steel inserts and Teflon seals.
Our custom biodiesel tanks are made with double-thick polyethylene. These tanks allow for production of 20 to 100 gallons of biodiesel in a single batch! You cannot find these biodiesel tanks anywhere but through Extreme Biodiesel.
With our exclusive "Methoxide Mixing System" you will never come into contact with both the methanol and lye together. These two chemicals are highly toxic to breathe in and will burn upon contact. Thus, we have added a separate, totally enclosed motorized methanol pump for your safety.
Our exclusive "Extreme Extractor" is a unique waterless system that completely eliminates the time consuming steps of water-washing and drying that is found in most biodiesel processors. It can produce up to 100 gallons of biodiesel in as little as 5.5 hours! And, with the "Extreme Extractor," wastewater disposal is eliminated!
If you already own a processor and are tired of water-washing, you can also purchase the "Extreme Purification System" separately. You will find all of these waterless systems well worth the price!
Biodiesel will have your engine run cooler, quieter, and eliminate up to 90% of emissions. Biodiesel will also reduce up to 90% of exhaust smoke, and most importantly, it's friendly to our environment!
Making biodiesel is simple. All you need to make biodiesel is vegetable oil (waste or virgin), methanol and lye. The vegetable oil-to-biodiesel-ratio is approximately 1:1. On average, you can produce biodiesel for as little as $0.80/Gallon!
Considering today's outrageous diesel prices, just think of the savings you will enjoy with your own biodiesel processing system from Extreme Biodiesel!
Source : http://www.extremebiodiesel.com/
What Is Biodiesel?
Biodiesel is an alternative fuel similar to conventional or �fossil� diesel. Biodiesel can be produced from straight vegetable oil, animal oil/fats, tallow and waste cooking oil. The process used to convert these oils to Biodiesel is called transesterification. This process is described in more detail below. The largest possible source of suitable oil comes from oil crops such as rapeseed, palm or soybean. In the UK rapeseed represents the greatest potential for biodiesel production. Most biodiesel produced at present is produced from waste vegetable oil sourced from restaurants, chip shops, industrial food producers such as Birdseye etc. Though oil straight from the agricultural industry represents the greatest potential source it is not being produced commercially simply because the raw oil is too expensive. After the cost of converting it to biodiesel has been added on it is simply too expensive to compete with fossil diesel. Waste vegetable oil can often be sourced for free or sourced already treated for a small price. (The waste oil must be treated before conversion to biodiesel to remove impurities). The result is Biodiesel produced from waste vegetable oil can compete with fossil diesel. More about the cost of biodiesel and how factors such as duty play an important role can be found here.
What are the benefits of Biodiesel?
Biodiesel has many environmentally beneficial properties. The main benefit of biodiesel is that it can be described as �carbon neutral�. This means that the fuel produces no net output of carbon in the form of carbon dioxide (CO2). This effect occurs because when the oil crop grows it absorbs the same amount of CO2 as is released when the fuel is combusted. In fact this is not completely accurate as CO2 is released during the production of the fertilizer required to fertilize the fields in which the oil crops are grown. Fertilizer production is not the only source of pollution associated with the production of biodiesel, other sources include the esterification process, the solvent extraction of the oil, refining, drying and transporting. All these processes require an energy input either in the form of electricity or from a fuel, both of which will generally result in the release of green house gases. To properly assess the impact of all these sources requires use of a technique called life cycle analysis. Our section on LCA looks closer at this analysis. Biodiesel is rapidly biodegradable and completely non-toxic, meaning spillages represent far less of a risk than fossil diesel spillages. Biodiesel has a higher flash point than fossil diesel and so is safer in the event of a crash.
Biodiesel Production
As mentioned above biodiesel can be produced from straight vegetable oil, animal oil/fats, tallow and waste oils. There are three basic routes to biodiesel production from oils and fats:
* Base catalyzed transesterification of the oil.
* Direct acid catalyzed transesterification of the oil.
* Conversion of the oil to its fatty acids and then to biodiesel.
Almost all biodiesel is produced using base catalyzed transesterification as it is the most economical process requiring only low temperatures and pressures and producing a 98% conversion yield. For this reason only this process will be described in this report.
The Transesterification process is the reaction of a triglyceride (fat/oil) with an alcohol to form esters and glycerol. A triglyceride has a glycerine molecule as its base with three long chain fatty acids attached. The characteristics of the fat are determined by the nature of the fatty acids attached to the glycerine. The nature of the fatty acids can in turn affect the characteristics of the biodiesel. During the esterification process, the triglyceride is reacted with alcohol in the presence of a catalyst, usually a strong alkaline like sodium hydroxide. The alcohol reacts with the fatty acids to form the mono-alkyl ester, or biodiesel and crude glycerol. In most production methanol or ethanol is the alcohol used (methanol produces methyl esters, ethanol produces ethyl esters) and is base catalysed by either potassium or sodium hydroxide. Potassium hydroxide has been found to be more suitable for the ethyl ester biodiesel production, either base can be used for the methyl ester. A common product of the transesterification process is Rape Methyl Ester (RME) produced from raw rapeseed oil reacted with methanol.
The figure below shows the chemical process for methyl ester biodiesel. The reaction between the fat or oil and the alcohol is a reversible reaction and so the alcohol must be added in excess to drive the reaction towards the right and ensure complete conversion.
The products of the reaction are the biodiesel itself and glycerol.
A successful transesterification reaction is signified by the separation of the ester and glycerol layers after the reaction time. The heavier, co-product, glycerol settles out and may be sold as it is or it may be purified for use in other industries, e.g. the pharmaceutical, cosmetics etc.
Straight vegetable oil (SVO) can be used directly as a fossil diesel substitute however using this fuel can lead to some fairly serious engine problems. Due to its relatively high viscosity SVO leads to poor atomisation of the fuel, incomplete combustion, coking of the fuel injectors, ring carbonisation, and accumulation of fuel in the lubricating oil. The best method for solving these problems is the transesterification of the oil.
The engine combustion benefits of the transesterification of the oil are:
* Lowered viscosity
* Complete removal of the glycerides
* Lowered boiling point
* Lowered flash point
* Lowered pour point
Production Process
An example of a simple production flow chart is proved below with a brief explanation of each step. (ref 1)
Mixing of alcohol and catalyst
The catalyst is typically sodium hydroxide (caustic soda) or potassium hydroxide (potash). It is dissolved in the alcohol using a standard agitator or mixer. Reaction. The alcohol/catalyst mix is then charged into a closed reaction vessel and the 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 (around 160 �F) to speed up the reaction and the reaction takes place. Recommended reaction time varies from 1 to 8 hours, and some systems recommend the reaction take place at room temperature. Excess alcohol is normally used to ensure total conversion of the fat or oil to its esters. Care must be taken to monitor the amount of water and free fatty acids in the incoming oil or fat. 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.
Separation
Once the reaction is complete, two major products exist: glycerin and biodiesel. Each has a substantial amount of the excess methanol that was used in the reaction. The reacted mixture is sometimes neutralized at this step if needed. The glycerin phase is much more dense than biodiesel phase and the two can be gravity separated with glycerin simply drawn off the bottom of the settling vessel. In some cases, a centrifuge is used to separate the two materials faster.
Alcohol Removal
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. In others systems, the alcohol is removed and the mixture neutralized before the glycerin and esters have been separated. In either case, the alcohol is recovered using distillation equipment and is re-used. Care must be taken to ensure no water accumulates in the recovered alcohol stream.
Glycerin Neutralization
The glycerin by-product contains unused catalyst and soaps that are neutralized with an acid and sent to storage as crude glycerin. In some cases the salt formed during this phase is recovered for use as fertilizer. In most cases the salt is left in the glycerin. Water and alcohol are removed to produce 80-88% pure glycerin that is ready to be sold as crude glycerin. In more sophisticated operations, the glycerin is distilled to 99% or higher purity and sold into the cosmetic and pharmaceutical markets.
Methyl Ester Wash
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. In some processes this step is unnecessary. This is normally the end of the production process resulting in a clear amber-yellow liquid with a viscosity similar to petrodiesel. In some systems the biodiesel is distilled in an additional step to remove small amounts of color bodies to produce a colorless biodiesel.
Product Quality
Prior to use as a commercial fuel, the finished biodiesel must be analyzed using sophisticated analytical equipment to ensure it meets any required specifications. The most important aspects of biodiesel production to ensure trouble free operation in diesel engines are:
* Complete Reaction
* Removal of Glycerin
* Removal of Catalyst
* Removal of Alcohol
* Absence of Free Fatty Acids
Source : http://www.esru.strath.ac.uk/EandE/Web_sites/02-03/biofuels/what_biodiesel.htm
We all want to live in a clean and green world and breathe pollution free air. For this kind of environment we desperately need a fossil fuel free world. Scientists are toiling hard to come up with alternative fuels which can replace conventional fuels. One such study was presented at the 237th National Meeting of the American Chemical Society. This study throws interesting light on the first economical, eco-friendly process to transform algae oil into biodiesel fuel. The scientists are quite hopeful that one day America will become independent of fossil fuels. Ben Wen is the lead researcher and vice president of United Environment and Energy LLC, Horseheads, N.Y. According to him, �This is the first economical way to produce biodiesel from algae oil. It costs much less than conventional processes because you would need a much smaller factory, there are no water disposal costs, and the process is considerably faster.�
Processing cost is a great hurdle for manufacturing biodiesel from algae. But New York researchers claim that their pioneer method is at least forty percent cheaper than the current manufacturing processes. We already have necessary infrastructure for supply of biodiesel fuel. Amount of algae is also not a problem. We have abundance of algae growing in the major water bodies of the world, be it ocean, lakes or rivers. The research team calls this method �continuously flowing fixed-bed.� According to the team members, this process will not produce wastewater which causes pollution. Ben Wen also explains that algae has an �oil-per-acre production rate 100-300 times the amount of soybeans, and offers the highest yield feedstock for biodiesel and the most promising source for mass biodiesel production to replace transportation fuel in the United States.�
They are also using a proprietary solid catalyst developed in their laboratory. Other biodiesel producing firms are using liquid catalysts. Liquid catalysts cannot be used again and again but solid catalysts can be utilized repeatedly. The second key advantage of having a solid catalyst is that a continuous flowing production of biodiesel can be maintained. The same is not true with liquid catalysts. Using liquid catalyst is time consuming too. Workers have to take extra half hour after producing each batch to create more biodiesel. Liquid catalyst is present in the biodiesel. So to get rid of the liquid catalyst workers need to purify the biodiesel by neutralizing the base catalyst by adding acid. But by using solid catalyst no such action is needed.
Ben Wen is trying to test the new waters. He is thinking big. According to him, his firm is currently conducting a pilot program for the process with a production capacity of nearly 1 million gallons of algae biodiesel per year. Depending upon the size of the machinery and the plant, he said it is possible that a company can produce up to 50 million gallons of algae biodiesel every year.
But this is not all. There is icing on the cake. Wen explains further that the solid catalyst continuous flow method can be tailored into mobile units so that smaller companies wouldn�t have to construct plants and the military could use the process in the field.
Source : http://www.alternative-energy-news.info/economical-biodiesel-fuel-from-algae/
How It Works
To generate biodiesel, the raw oil is subjected to a process called �transesterification.� This refining method uses of an industrial alcohol (ethanol or methanol) and a catalyst (substance that speeds up the chemical reaction) resulting to a conversion of the oil into a fatty-acid methyl-ester fuel (biodiesel).
It can be utilized in single pure form however it may require engine alterations to avoid maintenance and performance troubles. It is most commonly mixed with conventional petroleum diesel fuel at any level to reduce detrimental automobile emissions. When biodiesel is combined with petroleum diesel, it brings in a fuel that is compatible with diesel engines, reduce imported petroleum needs and decrease toxic emissions. A combination of 20% bio- and 80%- conventional diesel will greatly lessen carcinogenic emissions and gases which can worsen global warming. Lower-level biodiesel blends, such as 2% bio- and 98% diesel or 5% bio- and 95% diesel, are turning out to be increasingly common and widely used by the public as they become more aware of the many benefits.
Definition
Biodiesel is a renewable fuel made from farm products such as vegetable or animal oils, fats, or recycled cooking greases. Almost all biodiesels are derived from soybean oil; however sunflower oil, canola oil, recycled vegetable oils, and animal fats can also be used in the United States.
A Safe and Clean Fuel
� Cleaner Emissions � The use of biodiesel lessens greenhouse emissions because carbon dioxide that is released from the combustion of biodiesel is neutralize by the carbon dioxide utilized while growing the feedstock.
� Non-hazardous � In terms of toxicity, biodiesel is the best alternative that has proven to be safe and not harmful to the environment. Various tests verified that biodiesel is biodegradable and nontoxic that poses no threat to human health.
� Simple � The automobile need not any complex modification or conversion. The biodiesel can be readily blended with conventional petroleum diesel in your fuel tank at any point in time.
� Renewable � Biodiesel is derived from 85% vegetable or animal oils/fats which are renewable sources.
� Sustainable � Aside from it biodegradability, biodiesel is also renewable in contrast to scarce fossil fuel use which is formed from the remnants of animals and plants that have lain in the earth for millions of years.
� Nonflammable � In contrast to gasoline which ignites immediately at any lower temperature, biodiesel will only ignite at a very high temperature.
� Appropriate for Your Engine � A number of tests reveal that biodiesel is more lubricating than any conventional diesel to both the fuel injection pump and engine.
� Available � Currently in the United States, there are roughly 600 fleets that use biodiesel blends in their diesel engines. Moreover, various blends of biodiesel at approximately 800 areas are available nationwide.
� Affordable � The geographic area, base organic material (soybean, corn, etc) and supplier will greatly determine the price of biodiesel. It varies depending on the said determinants. It does not also require purchasing new vehicles to shift from conventional diesel to biodiesel. On the side of the fleets, acquisitions of new spare parts supply or rebuilding stations need not to be done by the manager.
Source : http://biofuelguide.net/
It is time that we all face the truth that our oil resources will be depleted in less than a decade and all the benefits that we have reaped from this oil since date will vanish in a wisp of smoke. With fuel prices rising every year due to the decrease in natural oil resources one day will come when fuel will be costlier than diamond and we will be left with nothing. But this fate can be stopped if we become aware and start using biodiesel fuels to preserve mineral oil for functions that are extremely necessary for human kind and cannot do without mineral oil.
