Stuttgart, Germany
Hall 3 , Stand 3B41
Biodiesel-Production
Biodiesel is booming. The many different reasons for this success story include an environmental policy which is specifically promoting fuels from renewable raw materials, whilst high world market prices for oil in combination with high taxation on conventional fuels are also making a key contribution. It is against this background that new biodiesel production facilities are springing up all over the world to transesterify vegetable and animal oils and fats into fatty acid methyl ester (FAME).
GEA Westfalia Separator supports the production of this biodiesel product in terms of both the pre-treatment of the oils and fats required and transesterification itself by the so-called Connemann process.
If biodiesel is to compete with conventional diesel in terms of combustion characteristics, then prior to transesterification, oils and fats need to be freed from concomitant substances which are undesirable in the subsequent primary product biodiesel and its by-product glycerin. Chemical and physical refining processes in which GEA Westfalia Separator process lines play a central role have become established for this purpose.
They allow the following pre-treatment objectives to be efficiently realized:
- No waxes, making biodiesel more stable to cold
- No impurities, resulting in improved glycerin quality
- No gums to cause fouling in the thermal glycerin process
- No free fatty acids, reducing the proportion of MONG (Matter Organic Non Glycerin)
- No phosphates in waste water, reducing disposal costs
GEA Westfalia Separator supports all refining processes, of which alcohol neutralization is the most economical variant.
Alkaline refining – even with poorer-quality oils and fats
Two variants have proved themselves within alkaline refining: firstly so-called standard neutralization and secondly cold refining, which allows oils containing waxes to be winterized as they are neutralized.
Pre-treatment of oils and fats for biodiesel production using the example of alkaline refining
A significant drawback of alkaline refining, however, is its inevitable by-product – soapstock. Even if the fatty acids bound in the soapstock are recoverable by separation technology, the rest which cannot be used has to be disposed of at high cost.
Alcohol neutralization – largely free of waste water and other waste
In this refining method, the process line uses a bypass flow of the transesterification stages to pre-treat the oils and fats. This completely avoids waste water and other waste products.
Pre-treatment of oils and fats for biodiesel production using the example of specific degumming and alcohol neutralization
It is also possible to dispense with vacuum-drying, because the oil is dried by the water being extracted with the glycerin phase. The glycerin/alcohol/caustic solution phase from transesterification is used as the catalyst for neutralization of the fatty acids. In contrast to alkaline neutralization, no additional caustic solution is required.
Another effect is that the separated soaps are recovered in the form of saleable fatty acids as the process continues. The use of a methanol/phosphoric acid mixture for acid conditioning also makes a key contribution to the success of the process. The glycerin/methanol/caustic solution phase used contains large quantities of alcohol. About half of this excess alcohol from the first transesterification phase is recovered simply through application of the new method. This is because this percentage passes into the oil phase and does not need to be recovered by distillation at a later point. This means that the oil already contains a significant proportion of one of the reaction partners for transesterification, namely methanol.
Process line for biodiesel / transesterification
Transesterification by the CD process
In addition to economical pre-treatment of the oils and fats, GEA Westfalia Separator also supplies all the components for subsequent transesterification. The individual machines and process lines which the company has been developing and optimizing since as early as 1996, operate primarily on the so-called CD principle. The Connemann process is both sophisticated and tried and tested; it combines stable process management with high product quality, which is why it rapidly became established with producers of biodiesel.
Separators from GEA Westfalia Separator perform key tasks within the process, including separation of catalysts and glycerin, biodiesel washing or biodiesel clarification.
Process line for obtaining biodiesel – glycerin separation and washing
Process line / integrated process for producing biodiesel
What is more, biodiesel can be obtained from more than just fresh crude oils and fats. The prerequisite is appropriate conditioning in which oils and fats from an enormous range of origins are degummed, neutralized and washed. Separators from GEA Westfalia Separator also perform this demanding task efficiently.
GEA Westfalia Separator markets the CD process as licensee of ADM Ölmühle Hamburg AG.
- Biodiesel Transesterification (process animation)Please login or register here5.28 MB