The Process
Vegetable oils, such as soybean oil, rapeseed oil, corn oil, palm oil
and others as well as animal fats and recycled greases are the major sources of
biodiesel. Regardless of the feedstock, transesterification reactions are
carried out to produce biodiesel. The transesterification reaction of
triacylglycerols (TAGs) in oils is usually done by reacting the TAGs with
methanol in the presence of a basic catalyst yielding the fatty acid methyl
ester (FAME). During the transesterification process, intermediate glycerols
such as monoacylglycerols (MAGs) and diacylglycerols (DAGs) are formed which
can remain in the final biodiesel product. Besides these MAGs and DAGs,
unreacted TAGs can also be present and contaminate the final product. The
contaminants can lead to severe engine problems.
Filtration down to 1 micron can remove a certain amount of the contaminants,
however once the biodiesel is blended with mineral diesel further contaminants
will precipitate out of solution. Hence reliable filtration to sub-micron
levels is required.
The Solution - One-step Biodiesel Filtration
Steri-flow has developed a process specific membrane and filter system that
provides biodiesel producers with a solution to ensure their product meets and
surpasses the industry quality standards and requirements, in one single pass.
Key product parameters that the Steri-flow solution can seriously improve upon
are:
-
Total Contamination (TC)
-
Filter Blocking Tendency (FBT)
-
Phosphorous Content
The
Steri-flow Biodiesel Filtration System * can provide producers
with a biodiesel product that is accepted by the most demanding customers,
including the “oil majors” who blend the bio-fuel with mineral diesel.
The Steri-flow system has been well proven to reduce Total Contaminants levels
from well above specification to minimal levels within the range of 2-7 ppm, in
a single pass operation.
A new requirement to be imposed upon biodiesel producers is the Filter Blocking
Tendency Test (FBT), as is applied to mineral diesel. The mineral diesel
specification level is 2. The Steri-flow system will significantly reduce the
FBT of bio-diesel to acceptable levels as required by the oil companies for
blending with their feed-stock.
Analysis of biodiesel produced via a Steri-flow Biodiesel Filter also indicate
that phosphorous levels are reduced, thus further improving the quality of the
final product.
The Steri-flow Biodiesel Filtration System is based upon the original robust
Steri-flow sintered stainless steel microfilter membrane, which now has been
further developed specifically for this application*. The inherent
characteristics of the Steri-flow membrane means that there is no replacement
filter media to deal with (providing no ongoing costs and no maintenance
issues) , it can handle the extremes in temperatures and aggressive chemicals,
and is a truly robust industrial plant that will operate 24/7 in an industrial
environment.
Cleaning of membrane and other separation systems has always presented
operators with high levels of generated waste, the consumption of significant
quantities of potable water and chemicals and effluent disposal costs and
issues. The Steri-flow system overcomes these major problem areas via the
simple use of steam as the cleaning medium.
The modular design combined with high continuous flux rates allows for this
technology to be utilised with any size commercial biofuels plant, whether
running batch or continuous production.
The bottom line for the biodiesel producer is:
-
Maintenance and running costs are minimal
-
Automatic filter operation and cleaning cycles free up operations staff and
resources to attend to other functions
-
Bio-diesel quality surpasses the industry standards, thus ensuring cash flows
through the full and immediate product acceptance by your customers.
-
Minimal waste
-
Minimal use of resources
Download this info as pdf document on Bio-Diesel Solutions
Biodiesel_Process_Solutions.pdf
(178kb)
