Novel Solid Catalysts and Alternative Feedstocks for Biodiesel Production

This research examines the use of solid metal catalysts to solve two interrelated problems associated with current biodiesel process technologies: the use of toxic chemicals in the conventional production process and the economic feasibility of processing feedstock with high water and free fatty acid content. The potential gains include the reduction of toxic chemicals in the process, the elimination of costly pre-treatment for low cost feedstocks, and a major reduction in product purification steps needed at the end of the process. Project objectives include laboratory tests using solid metal oxide catalysts to determine the conversion rate of free fatty acid at various concentrations, to investigate the effect of feedstock water content on yield and quality, to conduct catalyst longevity trials with low grade feedstocks, and to assess process technology's ability to meet quality specifications. Our approach is to use a set of solid metal oxide catalysts that eliminates the need for toxic chemicals, expensive pre-treatment of feedstocks, and post product processing. This continuous, heterogeneous catalyst process at near critical temperature and pressure has the potential to efficiently convert a wider variety of feedstock with higher concentrations of free fatty acid and water into high quality biodiesel and glycerin co-products. Highly effective solid catalysts in an ethanol based, continuous process will eliminate the use of toxic chemicals and eliminate several energy intensive processing and purification steps. Our technology uses solid metal oxide catalysts at near critical temperatures and pressures in a continuous flow process achieving very high conversions of all available feedstocks and high fatty acids with short reaction times and reduced water use. A solid catalyst processing technology will solve several key processing disadvantages in the biodiesel industry while creating glycerol market opportunities for biodiesel producers. Elimination of process steps and once-through chemical use will decrease both the fixed and variable costs of manufacturing biodiesel. The biodiesel and glycerin produced will be of high purity thereby producing negligible wastes. The proposed process has the promise of expanding the use of marginal feedstock supplies while dramatically reducing production costs and water usage.