Wood Chemistry PSE 406

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Wood ChemistryPSE 406

• Bioenergy-Biodiesel

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Agenda

• Why biodiesel?
• How to make it?
• Possible sources
• Cars
• Biodiesel
• Bioethanol

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Rudolf Diesel

• The use of vegetable oils for engine fuels
  may seem insignificant today, he argued, but
  such oils may become, in the course of time, as
  important as petroleum and the coal-tar products
  of the present time."

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Biodiesel

• Biodiesel is not the same thing as raw vegetable
  oil. It is produced by a chemical process which
  removes the glycerol from the oil.
• Biodiesel
• Domestic
• Renewable
• For diesel engines
• Derived from natural oils and fats

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Why biodiesel?

• Biodiesel
• Biodegradable
• Non-toxic
• Lower gas emission that diesel when burned
  (reducing green house gases by at least 68)
• Commercially available in Europe and USA

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Biodiesel

• Biodiesel is typically produced by a reaction of
  a vegetable oil or animal fat with an alcohol
  such as methanol or ethanol in the presence of a
  catalyst to yield mono-alkyl esters and glycerol,
  which is removed.

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How?

• Tranesterification alcohol ester ? different
  alcohol different ester
• Base of acid as a catalyst
• The oil is mixed with an alcohol, usually
  methanol or ethanol, and separated into methyl
  esters (biodiesel) and glycerol.

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Transesterification
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Biodiesel technology
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(No Transcript)
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Possible sources

• Vegetable oil (soy, canola, coconut etc.)
• Recycled cooking oil (McDonalds fryer)
• Animal fats (fish oil)
• Soybeans
• Algae

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Algae to biodiesel

• 1 acre of
• Corn-300gallons of ethanol/year
• Soybeans-60 gallons of biodiesel/year
• Algae-5,000 gallons of biofuels/year (cost)

Greenfuels bioreactors
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Palm oil (1)

• Palm oil plantations is approximately 11 million
  hectares (2006) in the world
• Conversion of tropical forest in Asia into palm
  oil plantation
• Habitat destruction and potential extinction of
  certain endangered species (e.g. the orangutans
  in Borneo, the Sumatran tigers and Asian
  rhinoceros) no word on Brazilian Pluto

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Palm oil (2)
                                                
   FAOSTAT
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Palm oil (3)

• Palm oil is derived from the plants fruit
• A hundred kilograms of oil seeds typically
  produce 20 kilograms of oil
• Crude palm oil is extracted from the yellow parts
  of oil palm fruit

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Biodiesel cars

• The 86 fuel economy compared to 100 gasoline
• A smoother running engine due to the cleaning and
  lubricating properties of the fuel. 
• Other benefits
• Better smelling exhaust (french fries or a warm
  waffle iron).
• Special materials required for fuel lines, hoses,
  valves, gaskets

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Flexible-Fuel Vehicles (FFV)

• Use E85 (85 ethanol and 15 gasoline)
• Cost of FFV is similar to traditional gasoline
  vehicle
• 1gallon of E85 provides the same energy as 0.72
  gallons of gasoline (lower E content)
• Special materials required for fuel lines, hoses,
  valves, gaskets, fuel tank (corrosive ethanol)
• Washington state more than 35, 000 of FFVs (U.S.
  over 4 million FFVs)
• Ford Focus, Chrysler Sebring, Dodge Stratus,
  Dodge Caravan, Chevrolet Avalanche