SBIR Phase II: Heterogeneous Catalyst Technology for the Economical Production of Biodiesel from High FFA Feedstocks

这个小型企业创新研究（SBIR）第二阶段项目为许多财政紧张的生物柴油生产商提出了一个潜在的可行解决方案。 据业内人士估计，美国173家生产商的安装基地中有75%目前处于闲置状态。 为了在经济上可行，它们必须能够使用成本较低，因此精炼程度较低的农业来源油作为其原料。这里介绍的研发建立在成功的NSF第一阶段SBIR资助的基础上，该资助专注于发现新的酸化非均相催化剂配方，该配方能够在不增加大量工艺成本的情况下精炼成本较低的原料。阶段II将使用这些催化剂沿着在随后的SBIR阶段IB中开发的反应动力学，以组装和展示中试规模的生物柴油反应器，该反应器将从高FFA原料（15%FFA）连续生产FAME，产率大于90%。这项研究的更广泛的影响是能够同时使用低成本原料和大大简化生物柴油生产该工艺可实现约1.00美元/加仑的总成本节约。有了这些节省，经过改造的目前闲置的设施将能够生产生物柴油，这将是成本竞争力的石油柴油，并有助于满足预期的全球市场需求约80亿加仑的生物柴油，到2015年。这些市场将为美国经济不景气的地区增加就业机会，并使美国更接近能源独立。

This Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase II project proposes a potentially viable solution for many financially stressed biodiesel producers. Industry estimates that 75% of the installed base of 173 U.S. producers is currently idle. In order become economically viable, they must be able to use less costly, and therefore, less refined agricultural source oils as their feedstock. The R&D presented here builds on a successful NSF Phase I SBIR grant focused on discovering new acidified heterogeneous catalyst formulations capable of refining lower cost feedstocks without adding substantial process costs. Phase II will use these catalysts along with reaction kinetics developed in the subsequent SBIR Phase IB to assemble and demonstrate a pilot-scale biodiesel reactor that will continuously produce FAME from high FFA feedstock (15% FFA) with a yield greater than 90% for a minimum of six months.The broader impacts of this research are the ability to simultaneously use low cost feedstock and to greatly simplify the biodiesel production process to achieve total cost saving of ~$1.00/gal. With these savings,retrofitted, currently idled facilities will be able to produce biodiesel fuel that will be cost competitive with petroleum diesel and help meet anticipated global market demand of ~8 billion gallons of biodiesel by 2015. These markets would add employment to economically depressed areas of the United States and bring the nation closer to energy independence.