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Alternative Reaction/Extraction
Media to Reduce Energy and Cost of Biodiesel
Production--Aerophase, Inc., 401 Mountain View
Avenue, Longmont, CO 80501;
303-651-1791; www.aerophase.com
Dr. Brooks M. Hybertson,
Principal Investigator, hybertson@gmail.com
Dr. Brian N. Hansen, Business
Official, Aerophase@hotmail.com
DOE Grant No. DE-FG02-07ER84836
Amount: $100,000
Worldwide
fossil-fuel consumption is skyrocketing, creating major social, political,
economic, and environmental problems for the US and once again throwing the
spotlight upon the urgent need for boosting renewable energy sources, including
biodiesel.
However, key technical and economic challenges continue to make biodiesel fuel production too costly to compete with other
liquid fuels, largely based on the cost of the energy inputs needed for current
biodiesel-production processes. This project will develop a new method for biodiesel production that utilizes supercritical carbon
dioxide in a process that links vegetable oil extraction with the transesterification reaction, in order to achieve continuous and economical biodiesel production.
Although previous work has indicated the economic benefit
(cheaper feedstocks, cleaner products) of using
supercritical fluids separately in the extraction processes and in the biodiesel reaction process, the proposed approach
represents the first attempt to combine these steps to save energy costs associated with heating and pressurizing the
supercritical fluid medium.
Commercial
Applications and other Benefits as described by the awardee: The
technology should significantly improve
biodiesel preparation and contribute to the
DOE goal of reducing