Rapeseed feedstocks

The composition of common fats and oils are found in Table 1. The most predominant feedstocks for the manufacture of fatty acids are tallow and grease, coconut oil, palm oil, palm kernel oil, soybean oil, rapeseed oil, and cottonseed oil. Another large source of fatty acids comes from the distillation of cmde tall oil obtained as a by-product from the Kraft pulping process (see Tall oil Carboxylic acids, fatty acids from tall oil). 

Biodiesel is a fuel derived from renewable natural resources such as soybean and rapeseed and consists of alkyl esters derived from transesterification of triglycerides with methanol. In spite of all the advantages of biodiesel, such as low emissiotts, biodegradability, non-toxicity, and lubricity, the major hurdle in penetration of biodiesel is its high cost because of the expensive food grade refined vegetable oil feedstock. 

In Europe, vegetable-oil-based fuels are mainly produced from rapeseed. In the USA, vegetable-oil-based fuels are mainly derived from soybeans. Another feedstock used in Europe and North America is sunflower seed. Most of the vegetable oil that is used as energy source for the generation of transportation fuel is converted to fatty acid methyl ester (FAME), often called biodiesel . 

Rapeseed oil - [ALKYD RESINS] (Vol 2) -feedstocks for fatty acids [CARBOXYLIC ACIDS - MANUFACTURE] (Vol 5) -m hydraulicfluids [HYDRAULIC FLUIDS] (Vol 13) -use m dairy substitutes [DAIRY SUBSTITUTES] (Vol 7)... 

Kinetic experiments have been reported in literature for the treatment of different types of lipidic feedstock with methanol, such as for soybean [16, 33], rapeseed [25] and sunflower oil [1, 36]. The aim is to optimize the reaction conditions, namely the amount of catalyst, the excess of methanol and the reaction temperature. The results depend largely on the composition of the raw materials, but some trends can be distinguished ... 

As a simulation example we treat the production of biodiesel from rapeseed in a plant capacity of 200 ktonne per year. The feedstock has a high content of oleic acid triglyceride, around 65%, such that the kinetic data from Section 14.6 can be used for sketching the design of the reaction section. For simplification, we consider that the oil was pretreated for removing impurities and gums, as well as FFA by esterification over solid catalyst. The free fatty acids and water content in oil feed should be less than 0.5%w. NaOH and KOH in 0.5 to 1.5% w/w are used as catalysts. 

The reaction is catalyzed by a variety of both acids and bases but simple bases such as NaOH and KOH are generally used for the industrial production of biodiesel [200, 201]. The vegetable oil feedstock, usually soybean or rapeseed oil, needs to be free of water (<0.05%) and fatty acids (<0.5%) in order to avoid catalyst consumption. This presents a possible opportunity for the application of enzymatic transesterification. For example, lipases such as Candida antarctica B lipase have been shown to be effective catalysts for the methanolysis of triglycerides. When the immobilized form, Novozyme 435, was used it could be recycled 50 times without loss of activity [201, 202]. The presence of free fatty acids in the triglyceride did not affect the enzymes performance. The methanolysis of triglycerides catalyzed by Novozyme 435 has also been successfully performed in scC02 as solvent [203]. 

Extensive performance testing has been carried out in pilot plants to determine the optimum process conditions, catalyst stability and product properties. A range of vegetable oils have been processed in the pilot plants, including soybean, rapeseed, palm and jatropha oil. Other potential feedstocks, including tallow and greases derived from animals, have been evaluated. 

Rapeseed oil methyl ester (RME) was the first biodiesel to be developed. Biodiesels based on other feedstocks such as used cooking oil and sunflower oil are now also commercially available. The first pilot plant with a capaeity of 500 tonnes/year was commissioned in 1988 in Austria. The first industrial scale biodiesel production plant went into operation in 1991. Its capacity was 10 000 tonnes/year. In the following years, biodiesel production plants of larger capaeities were established all over Europe, e.g. the plant at Livorno in Italy has a capacity of 80 000 toimes/year. Rouen in France has the world s largest biodiesel production plant with a capacity of 120 000 tonnes/year. Germany and Sweden also have biodiesel production plants of comparable capacities. 

The standard EN 14214 also limits oxidation-prone fatty acids with 3 double bonds to <12%, which permits rapeseed/canola oil to be used as feedstock, and fatty... 

Finally, Phase III biorefineries are the most advanced, as they use a variety of biomass feedstock to yield a mix of products (Figure 1.2). Such biorefineries employ a combination of technologies, among them are chemical and/or biological transformations, extractions, and separations. Examples for Phase III biorefineries include whole-crop biorefineries encompassing an array of transformations of feedstock (e.g., corn, or rapeseed). The most promising type of Phase HI biorefineries are... 

The feedstocks for vegetable oils and fats come from different parts of the world. Soybeans are produced chiefly in the USA, Brazil and China, rapeseed in Europe, Canada, China and India, and sunflowers in East South Europe and Central South America. Palm, coconut and palm kernel oil come from Southeast Asian Countries,... 

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