17 December 2008

Arkansas Students Refine Biodiesel Production Methods

Project investigates how to lower cost of this alternative fuel

Students mix vegetable oils and methanol in a reactor that uses high temperature and pressure instead of a liquid catalyst.

By Nancy L. Pontius
Special Correspondent

Littleton, Colorado — Students at the University of Arkansas (UA) are investigating methods to lower the manufacturing costs of biodiesel, an alternative fuel produced from renewable vegetable oils, animal fats or algae that can replace petroleum-based diesel.

Their work is supported by a grant from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), in its People, Prosperity and Planet (P3) national design competition. (See “U.S. College Students Offer Innovations in Global Sustainability.)

Biodiesel sources can include oil wastes (such as chicken fat and used cooking oils from restaurants), new vegetable oils (such as soybean oil) and nonfood crops (such as algae oils).

To make quality biodiesel more widely available at lower costs, students are investigating new manufacturing processes on a small scale and estimating the costs and equipment required for a large-scale biodiesel refinery.

“We’ve learned from the Europeans that it is possible to produce biodiesel on a large industrial scale,” Jamie Hestekin, a UA assistant professor, told America.gov. “Our goal is for a manufacturing plant to be economically viable relative to the cost of petroleum-based diesel.”

Students are investigating three methods to improve biodiesel production using a combination of sound waves for rapid mixing, a solid chemical catalyst and supercritical conditions at high temperature and under pressure.

“We’re working to demonstrate the first small-scale, continuous process of biodiesel production from waste oils without using a liquid or solid catalyst,” said Meagan Magie, a UA senior who is studying chemical engineering.

Biodiesel can benefit both the environment and the economy.

“Ideally, the biodiesel industry can create fuel and jobs for a local community by creating a business from a local waste product that is otherwise being underutilized,” said UA chemical engineering senior John Kim.

“It’s important to use sources of oil that will not compete with food sources and therefore not increase food prices,” Kim said. “Two possibilities are growing oil crops on unused land where food crops are not grown and growing algae in ponds on marginal land using wastewater as food.”

In the future, Hestekin added, the researchers hope to see increasing amounts of high-quality biodiesel being produced from many sources to provide a growing percentage of total fuel needs.