Biodiesel quality

The standard analytical methods for biodiesel methyl ester are time-consuming and often require multiple physical analyzes per sample. NIRS allows for the simple set up of calibrations for multiple important biodiesel qualities such as mono-, di- and triglycerides, residual methanol, glycerol and moisture as well as... 

Prankl, H. 2002. High Biodiesel Quality Required by European Standards. Eur. J. Lipid Sci. Technol.,104, 371-375. 

Biodiesel Cost Optimizer Least-Cost Raw Material Blending for Standardized Biodiesel Quality... 

Chemical analyses of biodiesel may be accomplished through standard methods as recommended by ASTM and other organizations, but these measures do not determine all aspects of biodiesel chemistry (20, 21). Knothe (21) extensively described methods of measuring frawi-esterification progress and assuring biodiesel quality, and suggested that no single test could assure quality. Online methods, such as NIR (near infrared spectroscopy), could be used to rapidly screen products to... 

Schober, S. M. Mittelbach. Influence of diesel particulate filter additives on biodiesel quality. Eur. ]. Lipid Sci. Technol. 2005, 107, 268-271. 

Haagenson DM, Brudvik RL, Lin H, Wiesenbom DP (2010) Implementing an in situ alkaline transesterification method for canola biodiesel quality screening. J Am Oil Chem Soc 87 (11) 1351-1358. doi 10.1007/s 11746-010-1607-9 Halim R, Danquah MK, Webley PA (2012) Extraction of oil from microalgae for biodiesel production a review. Biotechnol Adv 30(3) 709-732. doi 10.1016/j.biotechadv.2012.01.001 Hawkins RL (1999) Utilization of xylose for growth by the eukaryotic alga, Chlorella. Curr Microbiol 38(6) 360-363... 

Lobo IP, Ferreira SLC, Cruz RSD (2009) Biodiesel quality parameters and analytical methods. Quim Nova 32(6) 1596-1608... 

Fats and oils may be characterized according to their physical (eg, density, viscosity, melting point, refractive index, etc.) or chemical properties (eg, acidity, iodine index, peroxide index, saponification index, etc.). These parameters will influence the biodiesel quality. This means that the fatty acid profile of the oil influences the quality of the biodiesel produced (Demirbas, 2008). 

Casas, A., Ruiz, J.R., Ramos, M.J., Perez, A., 2010. Effects of triacetin on biodiesel quality. Energy Fuels 24, 4481-4489. 

Selective hydrogerration over low-loading, supported Cu catalysts has shown to be a valuable tool for the production of high quality biodiesel from Tall Oil, a byproduct of the Pulp Paper indrrstry. These resrrlts allow planning the use of a great variety of non-conventiorral oils with high iodine value for the production of biodiesel. 

The production of biodiesel from low quality oils such as animal fats, greases, and tropical oils is challenging due to the presence of undesirable components especially FFA and water. A pre-treatment step is required when using such high fatty-acid feedstock. Generally, this esterification pre-treatment employs liquid sulfuric acid catalyst which must subsequently be neutralized and either disposed of or recycled. However, requirement of high temperature, high molar ratio of alcohol to FFA, separation of the catalyst, enviromnental and corrosion related problems make its use costly for biodiesel production. 

Apart from a few reports" on solid acid catalyzed esterification of model compounds, to our knowledge utilization of solid catalysts for biodiesel production from low quality real feedstocks have been explored only recently. 12-Tungstophosphoric acid (TPA) impregnated on hydrous zirconia was evaluated as a solid acid catalyst for biodiesel production from canola oil containing up to 20 wt % free fatty acids and was found to give ester yield of 90% at 200°C. Propylsulfonic acid-functionalized mesoporous silica catalyst for esterification of FFA in flotation beef tallow showed a superior initial catalytic activity (90% yield) relative to a... 

The role of biocomponents in traffic fuel is increasing. The European Union Directive [1] on the promotion of the use of biofuels for transport purposes states that by the end 2005 traffic fuels should have contained 2% of components produced from renewables. The figure rises to 5.75% by the end of 2010 and up to 20% by the end of 2020. This directive defines biofuel as a liquid or gaseous fuel for transport produced from biomass, biodiesel as a methyl ester produced from vegetable or animal oil, of diesel quality, to be used as biofuel and synthetic biofuel as synthetic hydrocarbons or mixtures of synthetic hydrocarbons, which have been produced from biomass. The European Commission also encourages member states to lower tax rates on pure and/or blended biofuels, to the offset cost premium over petroleum-based fuels [1, 2]. 

A further example of process quality monitoring and reactor batch profiling using NIRS comes with oleo-chemical and biodiesel production. An established use of FT-NIR analysis (AOCS Method Cd le 01) is the determination of the key vegetable oil processing parameters - iodine value (IV) and percentage trans fat content (%Trans) (Figure 5.38). 

In this chapter, we report just a few selected examples of heterogeneous catalytic systems for the esterification of fatty acids and for the simultaneous esterification and transesterification of acidic oils and fats, and we discuss the use of selective hydrogenation as a tool for the production of high-quality biodiesel from non-edible raw materials. 

We have reported our work in the field of selective hydrogenation for the production of high-quality biodiesel. To the best of our knowledge, this is the only example of such a process. 

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