The need for solid catalysts in biofuel production

It is unfortunate that the world has to cope with the various kinds of pollution that man himself has caused. From water to land pollutions, mother Earth seems to be helpless. It is a good thing that man has realized his folly and is trying to make amends by creating pollut ion prevention technologies and by cleaning up the environment. Among the most important inventions, innovation or discovery is biodiesel fuel.

Biodiesel fuel is beneficial to the environment because of having cleaner emissions compared to coal oil and conventional petroleum based fuel. Biodiesel fuel is generally made through transesterificating oils such as vegetable oils and waste vegetable oils. The process involves using a catalyst and an alcohol and applying them to the medium. The most commonly used catalyst for biodiesel production is sodium hydroxide or potassium hydroxide.

In creating the actual fuel, the most common method used is the base catalyzed production method. With this method alcohol and the catalyst are mixed together, with the catalyst being dissolved in the alcohol. The oil or fat is then added to the alcohol/catalyst mix and then just wait for them components to react with each other. There are times that the mix is kept just above the boiling point of the alcohol to help speed up the reaction.

Most of the time, reaction speed varies from 1 to 8 hours. Once the reaction has been completed there is still a need to post-process the resulting biodiesel fuel since it has impurities. Most of the time the biodiesel fuel will contain excess methanol, glycerin or parts of the catalyst what was used in the process.

There are a number of ways to remove these impurities from the biodiesel fuel. Excess alcohol can be by using a flash evaporation process or by distillation. Glycerin, on the other hand can be neutralized though the use of acids and are stored as crude glycerin.

When the biodidesel fuel is separated from the excess glycerin, the fuel itself can be further purified by washing the fuel with water. Once the fuel has been purified, the end produce is a clear amber-yellow liquid that looks pretty much the same as petroleum based diesel.

This is one of the basic disadvantages of using liquid kinds of catalyst in biodiesel production. The fact that residual elements of the catalyst are needed to be removed from the biodiesel fuel after the process has been achieved. Biodiesel created by using such catalysts require manufacturers to post process the biodiesel fuel.
 
This means having the biodiesel undergo treatment to remove the alkaline components of the fuel. This additional filtration or refining process adds to the already high manufacturing costs. But manufacturers have no choice but to accept the higher costs of production.

Because of such disadvantages, not considering the inherent problems involve in using sodium methoxide, has prompted researches and studies on the area of finding the right catalysts for biodiesel production.

And among the paths of research that are being considered in biodiesel production, the attempt to look for solid types of catalysts is being undertaken by researchers and scientists alike. Solid catalysts have a major advantage: they can be separated easily from the biodiesel fuel and thus can be removed quickly. By adapting an easier way to remove the residues, the whole process of production is, therefore, less expensive than before.