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

这个小企业创新研究（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可行的解决方案。业内人士估计，目前美国173家生产商的装机容量中有75%处于闲置状态。为了在经济上可行，他们必须能够使用成本更低，因此，较少精炼的农业油作为原料。本文介绍的研发工作建立在成功的NSF第一阶段SBIR资助的基础上，重点是发现新的酸化多相催化剂配方，能够在不增加大量工艺成本的情况下精炼低成本的原料。第二阶段将使用这些催化剂以及在随后的SBIR IB阶段开发的反应动力学来组装和演示一个中试规模的生物柴油反应器，该反应器将在至少六个月内以高FFA原料（15% FFA）连续生产FAME，收率大于90%。这项研究更广泛的影响是能够同时使用低成本的原料，并大大简化生物柴油的生产过程，从而实现每加仑节省约1.00美元的总成本。有了这些节省下来的资金，对目前闲置的设施进行改造，将能够生产出与石油柴油相比具有成本竞争力的生物柴油，并有助于满足预计到2015年全球市场约80亿加仑生物柴油的需求。这些市场将增加美国经济萧条地区的就业机会，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.