Continual Improvements to Continuous Flow Production

by Ming Chai and Gus Kellogg (Greenleaf Biofuels/Biodiesel Magazine) As most biodiesel start-ups will find, the relatively simple academic theory of converting triglycerides into alkyl esters is not so simple in the real world. Add into the mix a continuous flow process technology and what once seemed simple is now proving difficult. Top that off with the need to convert free fatty acids (FFA) into alkyl esters just to make your plant viable in this market, and things get downright complicated.
Greenleaf Biofuels LLC ...was one of the first wholesale and retail distributors of biodiesel in New England, and is now operating a regional biodiesel manufacturing facility in New Haven, Connecticut. The production facility is strategically located to take advantage of New England’s large heating oil market.
Greenleaf’s production system is an integration of Greenline Industries’ 10 MMgy biodiesel production train, consisting of a two-stage transesterification (TE) dosing and reaction system, a robust vacuum system and a custom-developed, acid-catalyzed esterification (AE) reactor, and cold-filtering/polishing and methanol distillation systems. The whole system is a continuous flow process except for the final polishing step. READ MORE