STTR PHASE I: Ultra-High Efficiency Biodiesel Manufacturing

This Small Business Technology Transfer Phase I project research seeks to change the paradigm that chemical reactions need mechanical mixing. Innovative Fiber Reactors (FR) offer a 100X change in efficiency of chemical and biochemical manufacturing while eliminating dispersions. This research focuses on biodiesel transesterification and esterification reactions. Biodiesel plants convert fats/oils to biodiesel with many reactors and centrifuges. The need for this complexity is due to poor mass transfer between oil and methanol, poor reaction rates, and poor phase separation due to the by-product soaps. The FR will improve mass transfer and eliminate soap dispersion to thereby reduce the cost of biodiesel. This project will demonstrate feasibility of energy savings and process intensification in biodiesel manufacturing using a high-throughput, continuous static reactor and wash. The broader impacts of this research will include advances in covalent reactor technology applicable to other chemical reactions, improved consumer economics, reduced environmental pollution, reduced greenhouse gases, and improved fuel security for the Nation. Commercial fiber reactor technology would be applicable to pharmaceutical and specialty chemical manufacturing and would provide similar benefits to those industries. This project will impact the production costs to potentially enable more cost effective energy production.