Second Generation Biodiesel

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I called my biodiesel retailer in Wooster, Ohio, and was informed they purchase their biodiesel from Triton Energy in Indiana. I called Triton and was told that their biodiesel is manufactured using a method different from traditional biodiesel production. The man at Triton claimed it had twice the lubricity and would not cause seals to swell or cause gunk in the fuel system to be cleaned out. He also stated that Triton's biodiesel was classified as a fuel additive. A google search gave me this article

http://kpcnews.com/article_cceaafdc-215a-552c-b298-0d28c88b95d8.html

Does anyone have any further insight on these claims or this new process of biodiesel production.
 
Calling that one...I think.

Have made a fair bit of soap, and a few gallons of biodiesel (also as an additive).

Organic "oils" like vegetable and the like are trigycerides...they have a structure of three fatty acids, sort of joined in a comb structure by a glycerol...

triglycerides.jpg


Soap, you just add caustic soda (lye), and it breaks the fatty acid off the glycerol, and they separate. (After a while the clycerol soaks back in, and makes a great soap...commercially, they separate it out and sell it as moisturiser).

Biodiesel, is transesterfied with an alcohol (usually methanol, but I've done it in a presentation at work with dry ethanol, and at home with E85), and again lye...breaks it the same, but you end up with part of the alcohol on the fatty acid, forming the "ester" that is typical biodiesel...again, the glycerol bombs out...and the finished product should be washed to get the last traces out.

I've heard from a couple sources that part of the reason that biodiesel had such great lubricity in the early days was improper washing, and improvements have reduced that lubricity...can't really comment as I've seen nothing definitive.

Other methods use sulfuric acid as the catalyst, but still end up with glycerol.

I WAS follwing one guy who did the reaction with not enough of the non oil ingredients, and ended up with an homogenous "emulsion", with therefore zero waste, but everything that went into the reactor, oil, alcohol, catalyst, and therefore the byproducts ended up in the fuel tank.
 
I found some articles that may help.
Some googling said Triton is making diesel as a non-ester renewable diesel (rather than biodiesel)

Then I found this article that explains the difference between biodiesel and non-ester biodiesel.

http://advancedbiofuelsusa.info/wp-conte...tting-FINAL.pdf


I think if you google some more on "non ester biodiesel" you can find the info you seek.
 
Thanks, it makes sense...it's how they make "margarine" out of vegetable oils...which is why they (margarine) don't exist in my house.
 
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