Katerina Swanson
Biodiesel is a promising alternative to conventional diesel fuel, which has detrimental effects on the environment. Biodiesel is produced from feedstocks such as vegetable oil and animal fat, and its production results in a glycerine side-product. This byproduct, also known as crude glycerol, has a variety of applications, including use as a fuel additive, in the development of fuel cells, and for waste treatment. However, burning crude glycerol produces toxic gases, and it has technical challenges as a fuel due to its high auto-ignition temperature and the corrosion caused by the presence of salts.
| Characteristics | Values |
|---|---|
| Vegetable glycerine a byproduct of diesel fuel | Yes |
| Biodiesel production from vegetable feedstock | Results in glycerine as a side product |
| Biodiesel production | 100 kg of glycerine produced for every tonne of biodiesel manufactured |
| Biodiesel feedstocks | Neem oil, palm oil, waste frying oil, vegetable oil, animal fat, microbial oil |
| Biodiesel advantages | Renewable, biodegradable, safer than petroleum diesel, less harmful to the environment |
| Glycerine combustion in diesel engines | Not viable, engine would become clogged, toxic acrolein emitted |
| Glycerine combustion | Requires high temperatures, causes corrosion due to salts |
| Glycerine utilisation | Fuel additive, fuel for compression ignition engine, production of chemicals and fuels |
| Glycerine applications | Food, foam, cosmetics, pharmaceuticals, fuel cells, hydrogen production, ethanol production |
| Glycerine content in crude stream | 65-85% |
| Glycerine purification | Expensive, technical challenges |
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What You'll Learn
Biodiesel production from vegetable feedstock
Biodiesel is a renewable and clean fuel that can be produced from various feedstocks, including vegetable oils, recycled cooking oils, and animal fats. It offers a promising alternative to conventional diesel fuel due to its ability to reduce harmful exhaust emissions, such as carbon monoxide, sulfates, and hydrocarbons. The production of biodiesel from vegetable feedstock involves the use of transesterification, a process that converts vegetable oils or fats into biodiesel and a coproduct called glycerin or glycerol.
Vegetable feedstock for biodiesel production can include a wide range of renewable and biological raw materials. Refined vegetable oils, such as soybean oil and canola oil, have been the most common types used in the United States. However, other sources such as yellow grease (used cooking oil from restaurants) and vegetable oil blends are also gaining traction in biodiesel production. These feedstocks contain high concentrations of triglycerides, which are essential for the transesterification process.
The transesterification reaction involves reacting approximately 100 pounds of vegetable oil or fat with 10 pounds of a short-chain alcohol, typically methanol, in the presence of a catalyst. This catalyst is usually sodium hydroxide (NaOH) or potassium hydroxide (KOH). The result is the production of 100 pounds of biodiesel and 10 pounds of glycerin or glycerol. This coproduct, glycerin, is a sugar commonly used in the pharmaceutical and cosmetics industries.
The production of biodiesel from vegetable feedstock also generates a significant amount of crude glycerol as a byproduct. This crude glycerol has attracted attention as a valuable sustainable resource. While it can be combusted as fuel, it faces technical challenges due to its high auto-ignition temperature and corrosion issues caused by salt presence. However, it can undergo biotransformation and catalysis to produce various chemicals, such as lipids, citric acid, butanol, and monoglycerides.
The utilization of glycerol byproducts from biodiesel production is crucial for lowering production costs and making biodiesel a more economically viable alternative. The excess production of crude glycerol can impact the refined glycerol market, emphasizing the importance of finding efficient methods for glycerine utilisation. Additionally, the oxidative stability of biodiesel feedstocks is lower than that of petroleum diesel, which affects storage and usage timelines. Additives are often used to address this issue.
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Glycerine utilisation methods
Biodiesel production from vegetable or animal feedstock inevitably results in glycerine as a byproduct. For every tonne of manufactured biodiesel, about 100 kg of glycerine is produced. This has led to a search for new and efficient methods of glycerine utilisation.
One of the simplest methods of utilising crude glycerol is its combustion as fuel. However, this has its own technical challenges, as glycerol has a high auto-ignition temperature, and corrosion problems caused by the presence of salts. Co-burning with other more easily ignited fuels can aid the ignition process and maintain the flame. Special burners have been designed for the co-combustion of crude glycerol with other fuels.
Biotransformation and catalysis are the two major pathways for the conversion of crude glycerol into different chemicals. There are prospects for the production of lipids, citric acid, butanol, and monoglycerides from crude glycerol. Nevertheless, there is still room for the further development of many of these technologies before they can be incorporated into biorefineries and be economically efficient and operationally feasible.
As a fuel additive, the oxygenate synthesized compound, (2,2-dimethyl-1,3-dioxolan-4-yl) methyl acetate, could be produced from crude glycerol and used as a biodiesel additive. It could improve biodiesel viscosity and could meet the requirements established for diesel and biodiesel fuels by the American and European Standards (ASTM D6751 and EN 14214, respectively) for flash point and oxidation stability.
Glycerine is also used in the cosmetic industry, as an ingredient for hydrating the skin. It is used in the formulation of body care products for dry, dehydrated, and damaged skin, and for treating dry hair. It is also used to solubilise certain active ingredients. Glycerine is considered a good solvent, in which many ingredients dissolve better than in water or alcohol. It is also used in the pharmaceutical industry, for example, in suppositories, cough medicines, and certain types of anaesthetics.
Glycerine can also be used in food products, such as sweeteners, processed foods, packaged foods, and frozen foods. It is also used in the production of soap, and as a natural cleaning agent.
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Glycerine as fuel for compression ignition engines
Biodiesel is produced from various feedstocks, including vegetable oil, and its production results in a glycerine side-product. The use of biodiesel in conventional diesel engines significantly reduces exhaust emissions of carbon monoxide, sulfates, unburned hydrocarbons, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, nitrated PAHs, and particulate matter.
Glycerine has been proposed as an ideal candidate fuel for compression ignition engines because it possesses desirable characteristics, such as a high mass-to-calorific value ratio, high oxygen content, non-toxicity, biodegradability, and renewability. Additionally, it is available in large volumes at a reasonable cost.
However, there are challenges associated with using pure glycerine as fuel in diesel engines. It has a high auto-ignition temperature, which can limit its usage in compression ignition engines. It also has a low heat of combustion compared to fossil fuels, and its high viscosity can cause difficulties in effective spraying and atomization when injected into the engine cylinder.
To address these challenges, researchers have explored the use of glycerine blends and emulsions with other fuels, such as ethanol and diesel. These blends have shown promising results in reducing toxic emissions and improving ignition quality. For example, a 50/50% glycerine-ethanol blend has been found to effectively reduce UHC, NOx, and CO emissions, while also decreasing injection rates.
Furthermore, glycerine ethers added to neat diesel fuel have been found to positively impact the combustion process, particularly at low engine loads, by suppressing particulate matter emissions. The use of double direct fuel injection systems with two high-pressure injectors has also been proposed to overcome the challenges of using glycerine in compression ignition engines.
In conclusion, while pure glycerine may not be suitable as a fuel for compression ignition engines due to its physical and chemical properties, blends and emulsions of glycerine with other fuels show promising results in improving ignition quality and reducing toxic emissions. Further research and development are needed to optimize the utilization of glycerine as a fuel source for compression ignition engines.
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Biodiesel as a renewable alternative
Biodiesel is a renewable alternative to conventional diesel fuel. It is produced from different feedstocks such as neem oil, palm oil, waste frying oil, vegetable oil, animal fat, and microbial oil. These feedstocks react with heterogeneous catalysts and monohydric alcohol via transesterification to produce biodiesel. Biodiesel is a promising alternative fuel to conventional diesel due to its flexibility in feedstock and catalyst selection, production cost, and renewable nature.
One of the major advantages of biodiesel is its ability to reduce exhaust emissions compared to conventional diesel. Biodiesel significantly reduces carbon monoxide (CO), sulfates, unburned hydrocarbons (HC), polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), nitrated PAHs, and particulate matter (PM) emissions. For example, B20, a blend of 20% biodiesel and 80% petroleum diesel, reduces PM emissions by 10%, CO by 11%, and unburned HC by 21% in older engines. Biodiesel also has a higher flash point than petroleum diesel, making it safer and less damaging to the environment if spilled or released.
In addition to its environmental benefits, biodiesel can also help decrease a country's dependency on foreign nations for energy and provide an additional income stream to the agricultural sector. Biodiesel is a renewable resource with a high overall positive life-cycle energy balance. For example, biodiesel from soybeans yields 3.2 units of fuel energy for each unit of fossil fuel energy consumed in its life cycle.
However, biodiesel also has some challenges and limitations. One of the main challenges is its relatively high production cost compared to conventional diesel. Additionally, the selection of the appropriate feedstock and catalyst is a complex and governing factor in the economic production of biodiesel. While biodiesel can be blended with petroleum diesel, it is not a "silver bullet" solution and can only provide a fraction of the energy required by a country.
Another challenge with biodiesel is the utilization of the glycerol byproduct. Biodiesel production generates about 10% of glycerol as a byproduct, which can impact the refined glycerol market. While there are efforts to utilize glycerol as a fuel or fuel additive, it has technical challenges due to its high auto-ignition temperature and corrosion issues caused by salts. Overall, biodiesel is a promising renewable alternative to conventional diesel fuel, but further developments and effective energy management systems are needed to optimize its use.
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Glycerine's technical challenges as fuel
Glycerine is a byproduct of biodiesel production from vegetable or animal feedstock. Biodiesel is produced from different feedstocks such as neem oil, palm oil, waste frying oil, vegetable oil, animal fat, and microbial oil. The world biodiesel production was about 46,799 million liters in 2020 and about 4 billion gallons of crude glycerol will be produced as a byproduct.
Glycerol has been accepted as a sustainable resource with many value-added uses. However, it has technical challenges when used as fuel. Firstly, glycerol has a high auto-ignition temperature, which makes it difficult to ignite. Secondly, it causes corrosion problems due to the presence of salts. Thirdly, the combustion of pure glycerine in a diesel engine may not produce sufficient power and the engine could become clogged with polymerisation products. Additionally, toxic acrolein may be emitted during combustion.
To address these challenges, researchers have proposed special burners for the co-combustion of crude glycerol with other fuels. Modified burner systems have been used to improve combustion and flame stability. Additionally, crude glycerol can be integrated with solid fuels to mitigate ash deposition issues and improve the combustion performance of low-rank solid fuels.
Another approach is to use glycerol as a fuel additive. The compound (2,2-dimethyl-1,3-dioxolan-4-yl) methyl acetate, synthesized from crude glycerol, can improve biodiesel viscosity and meet flashpoint and oxidation stability standards. Glycerol can also be used as a fuel for combustion synthesis, where it is combusted to produce valuable materials.
While glycerol has technical challenges as fuel, ongoing research and development are exploring new methods to utilize it as a sustainable resource and improve its combustion performance.
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Frequently asked questions
Yes, biodiesel production from vegetable feedstock results in glycerine as a side product.
Biodiesel is a promising alternative and renewable fuel obtained from renewable sources such as vegetable oils and animal fats.
Biodiesel has a lower rate of emission of gases that contribute to the worsening of the greenhouse effect and is safer than petroleum diesel.
Glycerine has hundreds of applications in food, foam, cosmetics, and pharmaceuticals. It can also be used as a fuel additive and in the development of fuel cells.
