Masdar Institute Develops Novel Biodiesel Chemical Reactor

(Emirates News Agency/Zawya) A team of researchers from the Masdar Institute of Science and Technology, in collaboration with Tadweer - Abu Dhabi’s Centre of Waste Management, are testing an integrated chemical reactor they have designed to produce high-quality biodiesel from fats, including waste cooking oil, in less time and with less energy and potentially lower cost than traditional biodiesel reactors.

The biodiesel reactor developed by the Masdar Institute team integrates mixing by soundwave agitation, flow mixing by a static mixer, and separation, recovery, and purification for efficient conversion of waste cooking oil into its two main components – biodiesel and glycerol. This process yields much less of the unwanted glycerol and more biodiesel than the high-power mixing method employed by previous reactors and conventional industrial methods.

The biodiesel reactor can produce 50 litres of biodiesel per hour continuously, while a typical industrial-sized reactor may produce 500 litres every 10 hours in a batch process, which is a slower type of manufacturing process that produces products in groups instead of in a continuous flow. Although the production quantities possible are similar, the Masdar Institute reactor has a much smaller physical footprint (occupying 85 percent less area than conventional reactors) and very importantly can produce a high quality biodiesel.

"We determined the biodiesel’s quality by running it through qualitative tests, then followed with engine performance testing. We found that the biodiesel produced by our reactor generated less soot, nitric oxide, carbon dioxide and sulphur dioxide when compared to the biofuel produced by conventional reactors and petroleum-derived diesel with no compromises in power," Dr. Janajreh (Dr. Isam Janajreh, Associate Professor of Mechanical and Materials Engineering) said. READ MORE and MORE (Biofuels International)