Biodiesel: The Better Air Quality Alternative to Diesel

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Biodiesel The Better Air Quality Alternative
to Diesel
Ihab H. Farag, Sc.D., P.E. Hamel Professor of
Innovation and Technology Chemical Engineering
Dept University of New Hampshire Durham, NH
03824-3591, USA Phone [phone], fax
1-603-862-3747 emailihab.farag_at_unh.edu
EST BAQ (Better Air Quality) Forum Dec 13-15,
2006, Hyatt Regency Hotel, Yogjakarta, Indonesia.
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Bioenergy Consumption

• Biomass Advantages
• Renewable
• Availability
• CO2 neutrality
• Low Sulfur Conc
• Local supply security

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What is Biodiesel?

• Clean Burning Alternative fuel for diesel engines
• Produced from Domestic Renewable Resources any
  fat or oil, like vegetable oil, used greases,
  animal fat.
• Meets health effect testing (CAA)
• Lower emissions, better lubricity
• High flash point (gt300F), Safe to store and burn
• Biodegradable, Essentially non-toxic.
• Chemically, biodiesel molecules are mono-alkyl
  esters produced usually from triglyceride esters
• 100 lb 11.3 lb (1
  lb NaOH) 97 lb 13.3 gal
  11 lb

0.75 lb/gal bd
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Biodiesel Materials Uses

• Oil or Fat
• Used Cooking Oil
• Soybean
• Corn
• Canola
• Cottonseed
• Mustard seed
• Beef Tallow
• Pork Lard
• Alcohol
• Methanol
• Ethanol

• Catalyst
• Lye (sodium hydroxide)
• Potassium hydroxide
• Usage Anywhere petroleum diesel is used
  transportation, home heating, power generation

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Biodiesel Reaction.. Watch out
NaOH ?
Study chemistry, thermodynamics, physical
chemistry, kinetics degrades as fast as and is as
safe as sugar in the environment, and when
blended with diesel accelerates the diesels
degradation in the environment.
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Oil and Biodiesel from Crop Seed (Mustard)1
acre yields 320 lb or 40 gal BiodieselFor each
unit of energy used to produce biodiesel from soy
beans, about 3.2 units of energy are
produced.Ethanol 1.25Gasoline 0.74Diesel 0.83
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Biodiesel can be used in existing Diesel Engines

• Pure Biodiesel (B100) or blended with petroleum
  diesel (B20).
• Rudolf Diesel peanut oil
• Little or no engine modifications
• Use existing fuel distribution network.
• Available now

The use of vegetable oils for engine fuels may
seem insignificant today. But such oils may
become in course of time as important as
petroleum and the coal tar products of the
present time." 
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Energy Density of Fuels
Eberhardt, Fuels of the Future for Cars and
Trucks, US DOE EERE, DEER, 8/2002
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CO2 Emission

• Burning fossil fuels increases atmospheric levels
  of carbon dioxide
• Fossil fuels are a finite resource

Graph taken from USF Oceanography webpage
30 Increase
Biodiesel Renewable Fuel CycleCO2 Neutral System
Heating Value, Btu/gal Biodiesel 120,000
Diesel 130,000
Biodiesels Closed Carbon Cycle
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Petroleum diesel exhaust and children

• Diesel particulates are a probable carcinogen
• School buses and other heavy diesel vehicles
  expose everyone to particulates
• Biodiesel can reduce particulates by up to 99,
  far more than with Compressed natural gas (CNG).

Biodiesel alone reduces particulates from
30-90. Since it contains no sulfur, it also
allows the use of better particulate traps in the
exhaust systems of vehicles, which can reduce the
particulates even further.
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Relative Greenhouse Gas Emissions
B100
B100 100 Biodiesel B20 20 BD 80 PD
Electric
Diesel Hybrid
B20
Ethanol 85
Diesel
LPG
CNG
Gasoline
0
20
40
60
80
100
120
140
160
Data from A Fresh Look at CNG A Comparison of
Alternative Fuels, Alternative Fuel Vehicle
Program, 8/13/2001
http//www.greencampus.harvard.edu/green_projects/
afvp/rec/bus.pdf
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Relative emissions Diesel and Biodiesel B100
B20
B100
B20
CO2
Diesel
Mutagenicity
n-PAHs
PAHs
Sulfates
NOx
Particulate Matter
CO
Total Unburned HCs
0
20
40
60
80
100
120
Percent
B100 (100 biodiesel) with NOx adsorbing
catalyst and a CRT particulate filter on vehicle
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Biodiesel The Environmental Advantage

• High cetane No
• Complete combustion
• 10 Oxygen content
• No Sulfur
• No Aromatics
• Closed CO2 cycle

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Biodiesel The Lubricity Advantage

• Extensive studies in the US and Europe on long
  term engine wear
• Exxon Conclusion B20 provides
  significant, quantifiable improvements in wear
• EPA New Diesel Requirements (Jan 2001) Lower the
  sulfur content of Diesel from 500 ppm to 15 ppm
  by 2006.
• Lubricity Tests have shown that up to 20 of
  Biodiesel is enough to make any distillate fuel
  fully Lubricious
• Good Applications in the US Railroad

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US-Egypt Joint Biodiesel Project (UNH-NRC)

• Objective
• to conduct a feasibility study of the production
  of biomass crop which could provide economic,
  social and environmental advantages to Egypt when
  a Biodiesel production process is developed
  locally.
• The study is performed jointly by the University
  of New Hampshire and the National Research Center
  (NRC).

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Vegetable Oil Source for Biodiesel

• Rapeseed, the major source (gt80)
• Sunflower oil (10, Italy and Southern France)
• Soybean oil (USA Brazil)
• Palm oil (Indonesia, Malaysia)
• Linseed, olive oils (Spain)
• Cottonseed oil (Greece)
• Beef tallow (Ireland), lard, used frying oil
  (Austria), Jatropha (Nicaragua South Americas),
  Guang-Pi (China)

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Biodiesel Importance to Railways

• Biodiesel will help the Railways to
• Reduce and PAH Emissions
• Cut down on Green gas Emissions
• Eventually reduce costs
• Create local jobs
• Contributes to the protections of health and
  Environment

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Biodiesel Rural Economy

• Planting Jatropha and collecting seeds could
  provide income to families
• Waste lands or desert lands converted to
  productive lands.
• Creation of jobs in the processing of the seeds
  and the oil.
• Employment in rural sector.
• Contribution to the energy pool of the country

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Thank you for your time.