Biodiesel in India

2

• Developments, Diesel Issues: • New diesel fuel standards (low sulfur diesel)

• New diesel burns cleaner (good)

• Lubricity is reduced (bad)

• Retail diesel prices have increased • Why?

• Demand has been growing

• Refining capacity is strained

• Transportation capacity is strained

• Higher fuel quality standards

3

Chemistry of Triglycerides • Biodiesel is made from the combination of a triglyceride with a monohydroxy

alcohol (i.e. methanol, ethanol…).

• What is a triglyceride? Made from a combination of glycerol and three fatty acids:

4

What is Biodiesel? • Alternative fuel for diesel engines

• Made from vegetable oil or animal fat

• Meets health effect testing (CAA)

• Lower emissions, High flash point (>300F), Safer

• Biodegradable, Essentially non-toxic.

• Chemically, biodiesel molecules are mono-alkyl esters produced usually from triglyceride esters

Fatty Acid Alcohol Glycerin

Vegetable Oil

Biodiesel FA

FA FA

FA

5

Transesterification While actually a multi-step process, the overall reaction looks like this:

CH2OOR1 catalyst CH2OH

| |

CHOOR2 + 3CH3OH 3CH3OORx + CHOH

| |

CH2OOR3 CH2OH

Triglyceride 3 Methanols Biodiesel Glycerin

R1, R2, and R3 are fatty acid alkyl groups (could be different, or the

same), and depend on the type of oil. The fatty acids involved determine the final properties of the biodiesel (cetane number, cold flow properties, etc.)

6

20 May, 2006 2006 Eastern Biofuel Conference

CATALYST PREPARATION

SEPARATION OF PHASES

BIODIESEL

PURIFICATION

RECOVERING OF

ALCOHOL EXCESS

CRUDE GLYCERINA

DEHYDRATION OF

ALCOHOL

INDUSTRIAL

FACILITIES

RAW MATERIAL PRE-TREATMENT

TRANSESTERIFICATION

BIODIESEL

Block Diagram of Industrial Process

7

After Glycerin removal, biodiesel now needs to be cleaned/purified before use:

8

Blends of up to 20% biodiesel (mixed with petroleum

diesel fuels) can be used in nearly all diesel

equipment and are compatible with most storage and

distribution equipment.

These low level blends (20% and less) don't require

any engine modifications and can provide the same

payload capacity and as diesel. Users should consult

their engine warranty statement. Transportation and

storage, however, require special management.

Material compatibility and warrantee issues haven't

been resolved with higher blends.

9

The use of biodiesel decreases the solid carbon fraction of

particulate matter (since the oxygen in biodiesel enables more

complete combustion to CO2) and reduces the sulfate fraction

(biodiesel contains less than 24 ppm sulfur), while the soluble,

or hydrocarbon, fraction stays the same or increases.

Therefore, biodiesel works well with new technologies such as

diesel oxidation catalysts (which reduce the soluble fraction of

diesel particulate but not the solid carbon fraction).

Emissions of nitrogen oxides increase with the concentration of

biodiesel in the fuel. Some biodiesel produces more nitrogen

oxides than others, and some additives have shown promise in

modifying the increases. More R&D is needed to resolve this

issue.

Productivity of Vegetable Oils

10

Nature Yield

(kg/ ha. year)

Oil

Content

(%)

Productivity

(kg

seed./ha.year)

Soya 560 20 2.800

“Nabo forrageiro” 240 30 800

Castor Bean 470 47 1.000

Sunflower–Intra-

harvest 572 44 1.300

Sunflower –

summer 792 44 1.800

Cotton seed 361 19 1.900

Rapeseed 713 38 1.876

Peanut–dry region 563 45 1.251

Peanut–wet region 788 45 1.751

Challenges for biodiesel

• Transesterification

• Uses vegetable oils and animal fats as feed stocks

• The reaction of a fat or oil with an alcohol to form esters (biodiesel) and glycerol

• Should be stored 5-10 degrees F above cloud point.

Challenges:

• Expensive feed stocks and inefficient production methods

• Strict standards for product quality

• NOx emissions

• Transportation and storage concerns

11

12

Challenges for biodiesel:

Increase yields on the oil-seeds production

A real multi-feedstock biodiesel production,

regarding all the aspects, not only the technical

ones.

Establish of quality standards of different raw

materials.

Development of analytical methods for the quality

control of the process and the products.

.

13

13

Biodiesel Process

• Pre-Reaction Equipment

• Oil Storage Tank

• Alcohol Storage Tank

• Catalyst Storage

• Biodiesel “Reactor”

• Pumps, Filters, Plumbing

14

•Post-Reaction Equipment

• Settling tanks and/or Separating

Equipment

• Washing Equipment

• Drying Equipment

• Biodiesel Storage Tank

• Glycerin Storage Tank

• Pumps, Filters, Plumbing

15

• Crude Glycerin

• No Ready Market for Crude Glycerin

• Quantity produced is 10% to 20% of

biodiesel production

• Contains Methanol & Catalyst

• Possible Uses:

• Compost

• Fuel Oil

• Refine to Pharmaceutical Grade

Glycerin

16

17

18

Jatropha: The seeds of a plant called jatropha (Jatropha

curcas / ratanjyot in Hindi) and pongamia (Pongamia

pinnata; karanj in Hindi) yield oil that, after processing,

makes biodiesel. The system of production is simple. Oil

is extracted and put through a process called

transesterification (to convert it to fatty acid esters, the

chemical description of biodiesel, by incubation with

alcohol and alkali); this makes it a suitable blend for

petroleum-derived diesel. The jatropha blend reduces

greenhouse gas emission by half.

19

Preparation of biodiesel from crude oil of

Pongamia pinnata.

Karmee S K, Chadha A. ( I I T MADRAS)

Biodiesel prepared from the oil of Pongamia

pinnata with methanol in the presence of KOH

as catalyst. A conversion of 92% (oil to ester)

was achieved using a 1:10 molar ratio of oil to

methanol at 60 degrees C.

Tetrahydrofuran (THF), when used as a co-

solvent increased the conversion to 95%.

20

Continued Preparation of biodiesel from crude oil of

Pongamia pinnata. Karmee S K, Chadha A. ( I I T MADRAS)

Solid acid catalysts viz. H beta-Zeolite,

Montmorillonite K-10 and ZnO were also used

for this transesterification.

Important fuel properties of methyl esters of

Pongamia oil (Biodiesel) compare well

(Viscosity = 4.8 Cst @ 40 degrees C and Flash

point = 150 degrees C) with ASTM and German

biodiesel standards.

21

In India, the price of bio-diesel was regulated by the

petroleum ministry, which used the retail price of diesel

for its calculation. It was sold at about Rs.30 a litre.

India met just 23% of petro demand through domestic

production while the rest was met from imported crude.

India’s oil import dependency is projected to rise to 93

% by 2030. The Government of India approved a

National Policy on Biofuels in September 2008, setting

an indicative target to raise blending of biodiesel with

diesel to 20 % by 2017 and scrapping taxes and duties

on biodiesel.