Graham-Hutchings-CCI-Director
(September 15, 2015) University
researchers develop catalyst to recycle waste and increase the yield of
biodiesel
Researchers from the Cardiff Catalysis Institute have
devised a way of increasing the yield of biodiesel by using the waste left over
from its production process.
Using simple catalysis, the researchers have been able to
recycle a non-desired by-product produced when biodiesel is formed from
vegetable oil, and convert this into an ingredient to produce even more
biodiesel.
It is believed this new process will have significant
environmental benefits by improving the yield of biodiesel in a sustainable way
that doesn’t require the use of additional fossil fuels, and could potentially
reduce the costs of the biodiesel production process.
The results have been published today, 14 September, in the
journal Nature Chemistry.
By 2020, the EU aims to have 10 per cent of the transport
fuel of every EU country come from renewable sources such as biofuels. Fuel
suppliers are also required to reduce the greenhouse gas intensity of the EU
fuel mix by 6 per cent by 2020 in comparison to 2010.
At present, biodiesel is produced by combining fats and oils
with methanol, which is usually derived from fossil fuels. A waste product from
this process is crude glycerol, which is formed on a large scale and contains
many impurities that make it costly to purify and re-use in other areas.
In their study, the researchers developed a way of turning
the crude glycerol back into methanol, which could then be used as a starting
reactant to create more biodiesel.
To achieve this, the researchers reacted glycerol with
water, to provide the element hydrogen, and a magnesium oxide (MgO) catalyst.
The reaction involved a simple one-step process and could be performed using
mild conditions.