Category: Biodiesel

This system will dispense both acid solution and soft water into stirred reactor of oil preheated and subsequently held at 180°F. The controls will allow the operation to select the degree of acid treatment based on PPM of acid up to 1500 ppm. Water additions will range from 0-10% of oil volume. The vessel shall be sized to allow 30 minutes of contact time between the water and the acid. The resulting flow will undergo oil/gum separation in a static separator. The resulting gums will be heated and sent to the soap stock Vestment system.

This system is capable of independently dosing, then mixing, both bleaching clay and filter aid over a range of 0.25%-1.5% proportioned to oil flow. The unit sized to allow 30 minutes of contact time. Each filer system will be sized for 8 hours of operation assuming 1% bleaching clay in the flow. After clay filtration, the oil will go through a sock filter to remove any fugitive clay.

 

 

This is a continuous 3 reactor system with 3 hours of hold time. The system is fed methanol and catalyst under PLC control, and it is capable of reupping the catalyst as the oil leaves the first reactor. This is not a pressurized system running at the boiling point of methanol. The glycerin is decanted off automatically from the bottom of each reactor and off a final static glycerin separator. Methanol is flashed off under vacuum in a controlled loop heating system and recovered in a 15°F recovery condenser (not shown). After distillation the methyl esters are water washed twice using soft water. The wash water is separated using static separating tanks. The water is sent to the soap stock system.

The plant is to be equipped with a PLC control system capable of controlling and monitoring all aspects of the plant necessary for production. This is to include but not limited to recipes, historical data and current plant status. Where necessary the PLC system will have remote operator in put in areas such as dry ingredients loading. In addition to the main operator station the PLC system will have the capability of showing plant status for key operation in 2 areas.

This system is sized to receive and treat all wastewater flows from the other process systems. The system will automatically acidify water, then spilt and return the oils and FFA to the vacuum reactor (Glycerolisis) system. In addition, the system will automatically condition the wastewater stream to
pH 7 for discharge.

This covers both the flash removal and steam removal of the methyl esters. This system will flash off 50% of the methyl esters and steam strip the balance in the Compro distiller. The flash tanks and the distiller are sized to allow 50% return and still meet the total plant output. The system will have controls to manage input flows, recirculation flows, vacuum and heat for both the flash tank and deodorizing system.

This system removes the methanol from the glycerin, and then flash distills the glycerin itself. After distillation the glycerin is mixed with bleaching agents and finally filtered. The distillation and flash tank are sized at to work in lockstep with the esterification system. The bleaching system has 3x that hold capacity and is only run once a day. The condensate from the vacuum system will be sent to the soap stock system.

This system has its own vacuum system and scrubber to prevent cross contamination. The product of this system is USP grade glycerin.

This will be two cold traps running at 15°F, using direct evaporation Freon. Methanol vapor will be captured in the first trap and sent to the methanol day tank. All other plant vapors are directed to the second trap for capture. The system is driven by a liquid ring vacuum pump using a closed loop of methanol as the liquid ring.