Some more news for the board.
http://www.sartec.com/pdf/newsletter/Issue71.pdf
http://www.startribune.com/local/north/25137194.html
Emails with Dave Wendorf from Sar Tec, he states the algae doesn't need to be dried for the process to work.
http://www.evercatfuels.com/PDFs/congress.pdf
There is another outfit that says they are pumping algae straight into a catalytic cracker. This may make sense because a some algae produce lipids that cannot be made into diesel fuel by the method now currently in use. The question in my mind is what are the losses? Some of the lipids have to be burned to drive the catcracker.
Sar Tec actually published a Scientific article on this, I like that, you don´t see that very often. They published in APPLIED CATALYSIS A-GENERAL (impact factor 3.2, not bad)
Title: A continuous catalytic system for biodiesel production
Authors: McNeff, CV; McNeff, LC; Yan, B; Nowlan, DT; Rasmussen, M; Gyberg, AE; Krohn, BJ; Fedie, RL; Hoye, TR
Abstract: A novel continuous fixed bed reactor process has been developed for the production of biodiesel using a metal oxide-based catalyst. Porous zirconia, titania and alumina micro-particulate heterogeneous catalysts are shown to be capable of continuous rapid esterification and transesterfication reactions under high pressure (ca. 2500 psi) and elevated temperature (300-450 degrees C). The continuous transesterification of triglycerides and simultaneous esterification of free fatty acids with residence times as low as 5.4 s is described. Biodiesel produced from soybean oil, acidulated soapstock, tall oil, algae oil, and corn oil with different alcohols to make different alkyl esters using this new process pass all current ASTM testing specifications. Furthermore, the economics of this novel process is much more cost competitive due to the use of inexpensive lipid feedstocks that often contain high levels of free fatty acids. The process has been shown to easily scale up a factor of 49 for more than 115 h of continuous operation without loss of conversion efficiency. The increased use of biodiesel world-wide could help reduce the emission of greenhouse gases that are linked to the progression of global warming. (C) 2008 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
Oof! That is a very different sort of catalytic cracker from the ones used in oil refineries. I wonder where they propose to get the energy from?
DLSNFL: Emails with Dave Wendorf from Sar Tec, he states the algae doesn't need to be dried for the process to work. http://www.evercatfuels.com/PDFs/congress.pdf
Where does it say this?
Infact, Im not even sure why SarTec is even under the 'algae' heading.
I have been to 10's of conf's over the past few years on renew energy. Anyone who owns interest in BioD always end their talks with 'and then there is algae'. Even SarTec is doing it with the first two posts of PR.
flectere si nequeo superos, Achaeronta movebo! -Virgil
LG4NRG: The process has been shown ... for more than 115 h of continuous operation without loss of conversion efficiency.
The process has been shown ... for more than 115 h of continuous operation without loss of conversion efficiency.
LG4NRG: continuous rapid esterification and transesterfication reactions under high pressure (ca. 2500 psi) and elevated temperature (300-450 degrees C). The continuous transesterification of triglycerides and simultaneous esterification of free fatty acids with residence times as low as 5.4 s is described.
This is not something that can be done with just a small scale reactor. 2500psi/450C is a pretty expensive reaction vessel and cooling towers/etc will need to be included. And Im curious how they are scrubbing the feedstock and distilling the products. Prolly havnt thought of the scrubbing and prolly some sort of cooling tower system. This is an industrial process that will cost major infrastructure.
Thermodynamics will also get into the way here with low grade feedstocks. This means that if you need to cook out water... this looks like a EROI looser.
I don't know if I can post his email or not. But he responded to me when I contacted them
throught their website with my questions. So maybe you can have your questions answered
if you go to their website and contact them. I live 20 miles from where they say they
are building their plant and I can tell you they are building it. And it isn't some
giant plant. I think there are pix's on their web site also. I have read that their process is
portable and can be brought right to a farm if needed to provide fuel right at the farm. (Infrastructure?)
Or algae growing facility. If you read further I think they talk about having their process built into several
small wheeled trailers currently.
I'm guessing that adding algae is the result of the food/fuel dilemma, and have redirected because
algae isn't a food source.
Either way they are starting operations in October.
Biodiesel Magazine June 2008 did a rather lengthy article on the process.
http://www.biodieselmagazine.com/article.jsp?article_id=2381&q=&category_id=21
There seems to be a lot of info on the web site.
I wonder if that would answers all the naysayers questions?
http://wcco.com/energy/algae.energy.independence.2.731183.html