SBIR Phase I:Heterogeneous Catalyst Technology for the Economical Production of Biodiesel from High FFA Feedstocks

This SBIR Phase I project will produce biodiesel from low grade lipid sources rather than food grade sources. In addition, the project also has the goal of finding an alternative to currently installed catalyst technology that can employ a less expensive and simplified production process. The broader/commercial impact of the project will be to capture a bio-fuel from waste products (brown grease) and by-products. The proposed biodiesel catalyst technology shows potential to simultaneously use low cost feedstocks and to greatly simplify the biodiesel production process to achieve cost savings. With these cost savings, retrofitted, currently idled facilities could produce biodiesel fuel below petroleum diesel prices which would help meet the anticipated global market demand of 6 billion gallons of biodiesel by 2012.