A Novel Catalytic Reactor for Biodiesel Production

700 million gallons of biodiesel were produced by 144 biodiesel plants in the U.S. in 2008, representing only a tiny fraction of the roughly 40 billion gallons of petroleum diesel used for on-road transportation. Batch process biodiesel production plants are commonly used for biodiesel production. However, the upper average overall volumetric throughput of a batch reactor is relatively low; consequently, massive plants are used and the biodiesel production costs are high. The overall objective of this proposed project is to develop a compact, high throughput, and high efficiency continuous flow catalytic reactor system for cost-competitive biodiesel production.