Transcript Biodiesel

What is Biodiesel?
• Alternative fuel for diesel engines
• Made from vegetable oil or animal fat
• Lower emissions
• Easy biodegradable
• Lower toxicity
What is Biodiesel?
Chemically, biodiesel molecules are:
mono-alkyl esters produced usually
from triglyceride esters
FA
Fatty Acid
Alcohol
Glycerin
FA
FA
FA
Biodiesel
Vegetable Oil
Biodiesel can be used in
existing Diesel Engines
• Blended with petroleum diesel (B20, B10, BXX)
• Little or no engine modifications
Relative Greenhouse Gas Emissions
B100
B100 = 100% Biodiesel
B20 = 20% BD + 80% PD
Electric
Diesel Hybrid
B20
Ethanol 85%
Diesel
LPG
CNG
Gasoline
0
20
40
60
80
100
120
140
160
Data from “A Fresh Look at CNG: A Comparison of Alternative
Fuels”, Alternative Fuel Vehicle Program, 8/13/2001
Environmental Issues
• Burning fossil fuels increases atmospheric levels of
carbon dioxide
Biodiesel’s Closed
• Fossil fuels are a
Carbon Cycle
finite resource
30% Increase
Graph taken from USF Oceanography webpage
Relative emissions: Diesel and Biodiesel
B100 **
B20
Diesel
CO2
Mutagenicity
n-PAHs
PAHs
Sulfates
**NOx
Particulate Matter
CO
Total Unburned HCs
0
20
40
60
80
Percent
** B100 (100% biodiesel) with NOx adsorbing catalyst on vehicle
100
120
Biodiesel Samples
Chemistry of Triglycerides
• Biodiesel is made from the combination of a triglyceride
with a monohydroxy alcohol (i.e. methanol, ethanol…).
• What is a triglyceride? Made from a combination of
glycerol and three fatty acids:
Transesterification
While actually a multi-step process, the overall
reaction looks like this:
CH2OOR1
catalyst
|

CHOOR2 + 3CH3OH  3CH3OORx
|
CH2OOR3
Triglyceride
3 Methanols
Biodiesel
CH2OH
|
+ CHOH
|
CH2OH
Glycerin
R1, R2, and R3 are fatty acid alkyl groups (could be different, or the
same), and depend on the type of oil. The fatty acids involved
determine the final properties of the biodiesel (cetane number, cold
flow properties, etc.)
After Glycerin removal, biodiesel now just needs to be
cleaned/purified before use:
Research at LUA
Environment friendly biofuel (biodiesel)
production technologies:
• Biodiesel production using vegetable oil and fatty
wastes of animal origin (new raw materials)
• Transesterification with methanol, ethanol,
propanol, butanol using chemical and biochemical
catalysis (enzymes)
• Biodiesel properties: improving quality parameters
(CFFP, biodegradability, cetane number)
Research at LUA
• Utilization of biodiesel production wastes (glycerol,
fatty acids, rapeseed cake or meal)
• Production of biolubricants and improvement of their
properties
• Evaluation of biodiesel fuel impact on the
environment (analysis of exhaust emissions, fuel
biological degradation)
• Life Cycle Analysis of biodiesel fuel
• Harvesting of ALGAE, oil extraction and production
of biofuels
Research at LUA
• Usage of technical-grade glycerol for the production
of liquid fuel and assessment of the operational and
environmental properties
• Usage of rapeseed cake and technical-grade glycerol
for the production of biocomposites and assessment
of their exploitational and environmental properties
(biodegradability)
Thank you for attention