Rapeseed methyl ester

R D RAR RCS RD D RES RES-E RME Research and development Reasonably assured resources Regulations, codes and standards Research, development and demonstration Renewable energy sources Renewable energy sources for electricity generation Rapeseed methyl ester... 

Methyl ester based biodiesel fuel is commercially produced in Europe as rapeseed methyl ester (RME) and fatty acid methyl ester (FAME). Use in diesel fuel at 5% by volume is the most common application for RME. In the United States, soybean methyl ester (SME or SOME) is typically blended into diesel fuel at 20% by volume and is known as B20. Blends of 5%, B5, 10%, BIO and also neat 100%, B100, biodiesel are becoming available. 

Soybean and rapeseed methyl esters both have densities similar to diesel fuel. Their pour points are not as favorable. Straight soybean methyl ester has a very high pour point (-3°C [-27°F]) which would cause problems for vehicles in most non-tropical climates. The rapeseed methyl ester of Table 2-8 illustrates the improvement in pour point possible just by removing some of the esters that have higher pour points. Additives would no doubt further improve the pour point characteristics of these fuels. 

Methyl esters have a much greater water solubility than diesel fuel, no doubt due to the polar nature of the methyl groups they contain. The soybean methyl ester of Table 2-8 has a heating value similar to gasoline while the rapeseed methyl ester has a heating value similar to diesel fuel. The difference is most likely due to the larger oxygen content of the soybean methyl ester compared to the rape-seed methyl ester. 

Rapeseed methyl ester (RME) is another alternative biofuel that can be used in diesel engines. RME has the advantages that it is renewable compared to diesel, non-toxic and less flammable compared with many other fuels, like ethanol. RME has the same cetane number, viscosity and density as diesel, contains no aromatic compounds and is biologically degradable with minor contamination in soil. RME can be produced from vegetable oils, but is mostly produced from rapeseed oil by pressing of the seeds or by extraction. Up to 3 tons of rapeseed can be produced from one hectare. The fatty acids in rapeseed oil are mostly oleic acid, linoleic acid and linolenic acid. The oil is pressed from the plant and after some purification allowed to react with methanol in the presence of potassium hydroxide as a catalyst, to produce a methyl ester, see Figure 6.6. 

The cold filter plugging point (CFPP) indicates the possibility of using the fuel in low-temperature conditions. Similar information is given by the pour point , as well as by the cloud point . Biodiesel shows higher CFPP values, namely at larger content in saturated esters. The rapeseed methyl ester (pour point at —9°C) exhibits good behavior compared with the palm methyl ester (pour point at 10 °C). 

Price difference of the blend raw materials as compared to pure rapeseed methyl esters... 

Table 3.2 displays some examples for ternary blends of palm oil, soybean oil and rapeseed oil methyl esters. Under the price conditions given in the table, a typical winter formula would contain SQ-90% rapeseed methyl esters, with the balance mainly soy methyl esters and maybe a few percent of palm methyl esters. In summertime no rapeseed would be used. For Europe 70 to 80% soy methyl esters would combine with palm methyl esters as the balance. For Biodiesel in the U. S., the palm oil methyl ester content would be equally high, making the formula considerably cheaper than pure soy methyl esters. 

Fatty acid methyl esters are now the main intermediates in oleochemistry. Epox-idation can be considered as a transformation currently applied to triglycerides that is easy to perform on an industrial scale, compared with the production process for fatty alcohol. Therefore, why should epoxidized fatty acid methyl esters not become one of the commodities of the future The commercial development of these compounds requires easy, environmentally friendly (e.g., avoiding catalyst use) routes of low production cost as well as identified industrial outputs. Such considerations were taken into account in this study both rapeseed methyl esters (RME) and high-oleic sunflower methyl esters (HOSME) were used as starting materials. 

Materials. Commercial rapeseed methyl esters (RME) and high-oleic sunflower methyl esters (HOSME) were from industrial sourees and provided by NOVANCE Cy (Compiegne, France). The main eharacteristies of these raw materials are reported in Tables 1 and 2. The oleic acid content of the sunflower methyl esters is 80%, which is common for high-oleic varieties. The ehemical values of these methyl esters are also elassical. Epoxidation was eonducted with analytical grade formie aeid (99%, Merck, France) and hydrogen peroxide (50%, Prolabo, France). 

HOSME, higholeic sunflower methyl esters. RME, rapeseed methyl esters. 

RME, rapeseed methyl esters FTSA, fwra-toluene sulfonic add. ... 

Epoxidation of both rapeseed methyl esters (RME) and high-oleic sunflower methyl esters (HOSME) was successfully performed following the classical in situ formic acid process with a high conversion rate and satisfactory characteristics. The conver-... 

For these last reactions, acid catalysis gives a better conversion rate than basic catalysis, which promotes transesterification and the formation of side products. The reaction of epoxidized rapeseed methyl esters with heptanol and PTSA (100°C, 12 h, 1 bar) led to fatty ethers with an oxirane value of 0.0 and a saponification number of 130 methyl heptyloxy-hydroxystearate was the main reaction product. 

Biodiesel has been used commercially in several countries for up to 20 years, either as pure FAME or blended with petrodiesel [5]. The European and the American standards for biodiesel (EN14214 and ASTM D 6751) specify allowable limits for a large number of physical and chemical parameters. Rapeseed methyl ester (RME) meets these quality specifications, whereas FAME from other sources may have to be blended to meet the requirements [5],... 

FIGURE 34.1 Positive (left) and negative (right) ESI-MS spectra of rapeseed methyl ester (RME). Adapted from Eide and Zahisen [12]. 

FIGURE 34.3 Three-dimensional PCA score plot differentiating between 11 samples of biodiesel including two batches of salmon and three batches of rapeseed methyl ester. Each sample was analyzed 10 times with positive ESI-MS. Adapted from Eide and Zahlsen [12]. 

FIGURE 34.5 Cross-validated predicted versus measured plots for rapeseed methyl ester (RME) in jet fuel (ppm). The root mean square error (RMSE) is 2.2. ppm. Adapted from Eide et al. [13]. 

Figure 18.1 The relation between the efficiency and diesel oxidation catalyst inlet temperature. EGR exhaust gas recirculation RME rapeseed methyl ester GTE gas-to-liquid. (Reprinted with permission from Ref. [5]. Copyright 2014, American Chemical Society.)...

RME Rapeseed Methyl Ester. The form of fuel created by transesterifying fat as a Fatty Acid Methyl Ester, or FAME... 

Groves, A. P. Well to Wheels assessment of Rapeseed Methyl Ester Biodiesel in the UK. 2002. 

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