Biodiesel Production

Biodiesel

Transesterification of a vegetable oil was conducted as early as 1853, by scientists E. Duffy and J. Patrick, many years before the first diesel engine became functional. Rudolf Diesel's prime model, a single 10 ft (3 m) iron cylinder with a flywheel at its base, ran on its own power for the first time in Augsburg, Germany on August 10, 1893. During the 1920's diesel engine manufacturers altered their engines to utilise the lower viscosity of the fossil fuel (petrodiesel) rather than vegetable oil. The petroleum industries were able to make inroads in fuel markets because their fuel was much cheaper to produce than the biomass alternatives. The result was, for many years, a near elimination of the biomass fuel production infrastructure. Only recently have environmental impact concerns and a decreasing cost differential made biomass fuels such as biodiesel a growing alternative (Wikipedia, 2006).

According to the Biodiesel Association of Australia, biodiesel is the name for a variety of ester-based oxygenated fuels made from vegetable oils or animal fats (BAA, 2006). There are three basic routes to biodiesel production from oils and fats: base catalysed transesterification of the oil; direct acid catalysed transesterification of the oil, and; conversion of the oil to its fatty acids and then to biodiesel (Drewette, Dwyer, Farrell & Miller, 2003).

Almost all biodiesel is produced using base catalysed transesterification as this is the most economical process. It requires only low temperatures and pressures and produces a 98% conversion yield. The transesterification process is the reaction of a triglyceride (fat/oil) with an alcohol to form esters and glycerol. A triglyceride has a glycerine molecule as its base with three long-chain fatty acids attached. During the esterification process, the triglyceride is reacted with alcohol in the presence of a catalyst, usually a strong alkaline like sodium hydroxide. The alcohol reacts with the fatty acids to form the mono-alkyl ester, or biodiesel, and crude glycerol. In most cases, methanol or ethanol is the alcohol used, where methanol produces methyl esters, and ethanol produces ethyl esters.  Potassium hydroxide has been found to be more suitable for the ethyl ester biodiesel production. Either base catalyst can be used for the methyl ester. A common product of the transesterification process is Rape Methyl Ester (RME) produced from raw rapeseed oil reacted with methanol (Drewette, Dwyer, Farrell & Miller, 2003).

Biodiesel Production, Safety, Costs & Tax Laws

Through its Information Portal, RISE provides extensive information and networking services to assist people researching various renewable energy applications. There are many excellent decision-making and capacity building resources freely available for download provided by other quality institutions. Duplication of this information on this site is therefore unnecessary.

Below is a list of excellent online biodiesel resources, and a short description of each to assist in your search :

Biodiesel Association of Australia (BAA) – Biodiesel Fact Sheet. The BAA site is a great site for both the technical and political enthusiast for biodiesel in Australia. It has a good section on quality assurance and safety issues related to the production and handling of biodiesel. There is essential information regarding the new developments in fuel excise payable and areas where biodiesel is available in Australia.

National Biodiesel Board (US). This has numerous pdf files with great biodiesel information. There are close to 50 fact sheets on biodiesel basics, engine performance, health and environmental issues, production and methanol FAQ's.

Rocky Mountain Institute - Australia’s First Biodiesel Fleet. This site has a homepage with an article about the benefits of using biodiesel vehicles in government fleets to reduce city air pollutants, including greenhouse gas emissions. The article on Newcastle is written by Rodney Ingersoll.

BE Bioenergy is another good resource with a description of how an Australia grain farmer, Steven Hobbs, built his biodiesel plant in his shed, using a bought oil press. He describes the process, uses and benefits for producing his own oil for the machinery he uses on farm and covers growing oil crops for this purpose.

Journey to Forever – Make Your Own Biodiesel. This is one of the largest and most comprehensive websites on biodiesel available. It covers a huge variety of issues with many recommendations on effective and efficient methods to produce a high quality biodiesel safely and efficiently. It enters into many complexities of the chemistry behind the process and describes options and variants that are recommended for modifying the process depending on the feedstock and other variables. In addition there is copious amounts of information about biodiesel issues, including oxides of nitrogen emissions, issues with vehicles, glycerine, yields, the future of biodiesel etc.

Government of Western Australia – Case Study Biodiesel. This document is a Masters thesis by Robert Passey and describes the sustainability issues relating to biodiesel use globally and locally in Australia. It covers the history of biodiesel production, the recent developments, production, feedstock, emissions and its global significance.

Wikipedia - Biodiesel. This is another comprehensive resource covering areas such as production, technical standards, applications availability, environmental benefits, efficiency and economic arguments, as well as new research areas.

Castrol's Bio-diesel WWW Encyclopedia. This is another extremely comprehensive and large resource. It describes everything from a historical approach to biodiesel use, but also has some great references and links with material, specifics and definitions of calorific value, cloud point, flash point, melt point, iodine value, viscosity, cetane number etc. Titles include information on biodiesel definition, composition, & chemistry, advantages of biodiesel, diesel engine links, biodiesel & gasoline engines, inputs, production and transesterification, dilution, microemulsion, thermal decomposition, catalytic cracking, plant oils (such as canola, palm oil, castor oil, sunflower, safflower, hemp, mustard, soybean, jatropha, algae, radish, artichoke, corn oil, rice bran oil, peanut oil, cottonseed oil, coconut oil, tung oil, milk bush, karanj etc.) ethanol & biodiesel, economics & sustainability, cost-benefits, case studies, research & future trends, applications, data & statistics, diesel fuel standards, viscosity data, limitations & crises. This is a highly recommended resource.

BioDieselNow.com This resource briefly covers biodiesel issues relating to national security, the economy, emissions and carbon neutrality, engine life, drivability. etc. There are links to pdf files that delve further into more details on these topics.

US Department of Energy – Alternative Fuels - Biodiesel. A good American resource. Includes such topics as: biodiesel markets, benefits, research, infrastructure, biodiesel incentives, laws, publications, biodiesel industry contacts etc.

Willie Nelson’s Biodiesel This is another good site with general information on the developments of biodiesel in the US.

Earthbeat - Biodiesel This resource shows the transcript of an interview with ABC's Radio National's Alexandra de Blas and the Managing Director of Biodiesel Industries Australia, Andrew Hill, Peter Dormand, the Energy and Resource Manager with Newcastle City Council, Rick Hay from Waterway Constructions, and Adrian Lake, the Director and founder of the Australian Biodiesel Consultancy.

Energy Information Administration – Biodiesel Performance, Costs and Use. This resource covers topics such as performance and emissions characteristics, biodiesel production and costs, incentives for biodiesel production, demand projections, and the future of biodiesel from a US perspective.

Biodiesel Association of Australia (BAA) - Biodiesel Excise Requirements The recent political and legal developments regarding biodiesel production excise of over 38 cents per litre in Australia is causing great uncertainty for the future of biodiesel in Australia, especially for small decentralised producers. Simply put this requires producers to pay the government excise for every litre they produce, regardless of whether it is used, sold or given away. This page provided by the BAA is important information relevant to the Australian producer.

Conclusion

There is a large potential for the application of biodiesel to provide sustainable fuel supplies for distributed generation and regional energy security. Sustainably produced local oil crops converted for use as a renewable fuel used in existing engines while using cyclical carbon from plants are benefits that are very attractive. However to compete economically there must be similar subsidies for biodiesel that were offered to other industries in their development phase, such as LPG and other conventional fossil fuels.

Links to Suppliers and Further Information

RISE Resources - Information regarding available renewable energy resources.

RISE Technologies - An extensive collection of information regarding renewable energy technologies.

RISE Applications & System Design - Renewable energy application information and system designs.

RISE System Displays - Case studies and information on installed renewable energy systems & performance data.

For further information on esterification see RISE Information Portal Waste (Esterification) Technologies File.

If you wish to purchase biodiesel in Australia, then try Biodiesel Association of Australia's (BAA) website and click on the buying biodiesel link on the homepage to take you to a map of Australia with links to each states biodiesel suppliers.

ABC News Online - New laws outlaw biodiesel home-brews

References

Biodiesel Association of Australia, 2006. “Homepage” (Online) http://www.biodiesel.org.au/ (Accessed 28 February 2007).

Drewette, A., Dwyer, S., Farrell, V., & Miller A., 2003. “Biofuels for Transport” (Online) http://www.esru.strath.ac.uk/EandE/Web_sites/02-03/biofuels/home.html ( Accessed 28 February 2007).

Wikipedia, 2006. "Biodiesel" (Online) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biodiesel (Accessed 28 February 2007).