Enzymatic process:
Tactical Fabrication In a collaborated effort with Diesel Fuel has engineered and built a truly continuous enzymatic process utilizing Novozymes enzymes. My life in the Biodiesel market has been spent dealing with either high free fatty acid feedstock’s or wet feedstock. Both of these cause havoc in tradition catalyst biodiesel production units. With the enzymes both of these are assets to the reaction. The Novozymes enzymes are amazing. In traditional biodiesel you are always changing recipes to accommodate the ever-changing feedstock. With the enzymes it is so simple. The same recipe you would use for virgin soy is the same recipe you use for 95% free fatty acid brown grease, did I say brown grease?, really yes I did! The only thing that changes is the reaction time and that is not what you think either. The higher the free fatty acid the faster the reaction.After the reaction is complete you are left over with a couple of % of free fatty acid that must be dealt with to meet ASTM-D6751. To begin with this was “fixed” with a simple caustic wash. The only problem with the caustic wash is you lose biodiesel entrapped in the soap formed by the caustic wash. On a typical 5 MGPY plant this loss would equate to about 10% of production. Understand this is all we had to begin with to deal with the left over FFA. We were left with two options, one to get the FFA lower in the reaction or find an alternative way to convert the FFA.
The enzymatic metering skids we provide systematically inject the required amount of enzymes, methanol, caustic, water and glycerin. The process its self is very simple but you must monitor and adjust the rate of methanol that is injected. The PLC programming establishes the dosing cure and adjust with the reaction as it continues. We are presently working some different manufacturers of inline monitoring systems.The only problem is the bio enzymatic process is so new that we are having to make the data points for the manufacturers. In about a year we will be ready to offer inline monitoring with PLC controlled dosing. At that point and time the operator’s main job Is to stay awake and that is the kind of equipment we strive to make. Operator friendly and robust!