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BIOFUEL PRODUCTION
Page 59
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Richard Hill, a director of Intelligent Energy, gave us a layman's guide to the business of making biofuel. Take your feedstock oil and filter it (especially important for used cooking oil). Mix it with methanol and sodium hydroxide in an accurately measured ratio. This causes a chemical reaction called esterification, saturating the oil with hydrocarbons and leaving glycerol as a by-product. This is the same process as making soap.
"The glycerol is used in places like the biogas plant at Ludlow as a yield enhancer," says Hill. Although he runs his own small-scale plant-along with other environmental energy productshe has a warning for operators considering setting up their own system. "It takes about 12 hours for the reaction and you need someone trained in handling dangerous chemicals to run it. It's more efficient if the plant is left running all the time as well."
The cost of setting up a plant is also misleading. "It costs under E20,000 to set up a decent small plant and a few pence per litre for the fuel. But the costs for a large-scale plant are exponential and controlling the reaction in large batches is much more difficult."