Innovations in Biodiesel Technology

January 08, 2020

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by Ron Kotrba (Biodiesel Magazine) New biodiesel process technologies continue to emerge, promising optimization of production through greater efficiencies and lower costs. -- Crown Iron Works: ... The global Minnesota-based firm has built 50 biodiesel plants around the world. Like any good engineering company, Crown continues to refine its biodiesel process technology, evidenced by the advent of its recent process upgrade: Advanced Catalyst Reduction and Economization.

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The ACRE upgrade employs a third transesterification reactor to provide greater residence time and achieve stoichiometric reaction.

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In addition to catalyst reduction, ACRE is energy-efficient, lowering steam and energy costs for biodiesel producers.

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Crown’s biodiesel design uses decanters instead of centrifuges for phase separation. ... And decanters don’t require energy. Mechanical separators have high energy costs—they use big motors that require electricity and have more moving parts, which means more scheduled and emergency downtime.

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While ACRE is one of Crown’s latest innovations, it isn’t the company’s only one. It will soon unveil a new pretreatment system for renewable diesel.

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“The focus is contaminant removal to reliably extend catalyst life of the hydrotreater unit.”

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Plasma Blue
Plasma is a complex state in which free electrons and positive ions coexist in matter when sufficient energy is introduced. Science often refers to plasma as the fourth state of matter, but Tom Slunecka, CEO of the Minnesota Soybean Research & Promotion Council, refers to it as the next big wave in biodiesel process technology.

“This is a piece of disruptive technology that will forever change the way biodiesel is viewed,” Slunecka says, referring to a liquid phase plasma discharge technology MSR&PC is backing.

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The plasma technology focuses entirely on the main processing step in biodiesel production—transesterification—and operates well, according to Slenecka, with the same quality feedstock suitable for standard base conversion, regardless of its origin. Integration of a 5’x7’ skid-mounted, low-capex unit into an existing biodiesel facility would provide an additional 1.5 MMgy of production capacity with little to no changes to pretreatment or posttreatment systems.

Using low-amperage, high-frequency electricity, the continuous flow technology momentarily turns the liquid mixture into plasma.

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A familiar mixture of oil, alcohol and catalyst is run through the plasma unit, but with several key differences. The reactor creates an excited molecular state for the mixture, which results in improved conductivity between the elements. “This excited state allows us to use a lower-cost catalyst that translates into reduced costs per gallon,” Slunecka says.

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It requires less process heat since the reactor can perform conversion at any temperature, according to Slunecka.

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Perhaps one of MSR&PC’s most celebrated characteristics of the liquid phase plasma discharge technology is its easy integration into ethanol plants and ability to use ethanol for transesterification of distillers corn oil.

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“When ethanol is used, the glycerin no longer carries methanol and thus can be used as a feed additive to their distillers grains. ... "

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BDI
A great milestone in biodiesel history was achieved 10 years ago. In 2010, Biodiesel Amsterdam BV came online with its large-scale multifeedstock plant that was designed, engineered and built by BDI-BioEnergy International. This wasn’t BDI’s first multifeedstock plant that could process 100 percent waste oils and fats, but it was the Austrian biodiesel process technology provider’s largest at that time—100,000 tons per year (30 MMgy)—and would become the reference subsequent designs would follow.

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The basic elements of BDI’s multifeedstock technology include physical and chemical feedstock pretreatment; acid esterification; a two-step, potassium-based alkaline transesterification; washing; distillation; and, of course, an optimized PCS—the brains of the system upon which all those decades of data are enacted.

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“For example,” says Riedl, illustrating how each plant design can be unique despite having a base model to reference, “we’ve developed seven different esterification processes.

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A patent is soon expected to be granted on a technique to either improve existing distillation systems or implement new units to drastically reduce sulfur from low-quality greases to 10 ppm.

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VFT
Surface area is critical for fast, complete chemical reactions. When novel fiber reactor technology to drastically increase surface area is combined with that same approach to pretreat feedstock in a small, skid-mounted unit, the outcome is a remarkable new approach to biodiesel manufacturing. Add a midstream water-wash step and the result is Visionary Fiber Technologies Inc.’s Fiber Reactor Technology.

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The concept is to pack thousands of hair-width strands of stainless-steel fibers in a reactor to create thin ribbons of interstitial space within which reaction occurs.

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This step can reduce FFA content of distillers corn oil (DCO) from 15 percent to less than 0.5 percent.

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Horvath says VFT’s skids are perfect for ethanol producers seeking to co-locate biodiesel production on-site. One reason is the ability to use ethanol instead of methanol in transesterification. “When other technologies use ethanol, it creates more problems than solutions,” Horvath says.

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Unlike others wishing to use ethanol for biodiesel manufacturing, ethanol producers can avoid tax implications with denaturant-free ethanol since it’s made on-site.

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In addition, the carotenoid-rich FFA stream stripped from the DCO feedstock can be added to the distillers grains for a nutrient-rich, higher-priced variety. Fuel performance of fatty acid ethyl esters (FAEE) is better than fatty acid methyl esters, Horvath says. “It has higher cetane, better cold flow and pourability characteristics,” he says.

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SI Group
As new biodiesel processes and feedstocks are commercialized, the resulting fuels must be coupled with the right additive chemistries for optimal performance. Enter SI Group.

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“Biodiesel is unique. There’s no one catalyst, process or feedstock used, so fuel properties and performance attributes differ. We offer a variety of antioxidants under the Ethanox brand, from generic, broad-reaching products that work on a number of biodiesels and blends to more tailor-made options for treating a specific type of biodiesel.”

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