Dow Water & Process Solutions, a business unit of The Dow Chemical Co., and Bayer Technology Services GmbH (BTS), announced a licensing agreement for the worldwide marketing of BayFAME technology, a continuous process developed by BTS for the esterification of free fatty acids (FFA) to biodiesel based on the Dow Amberlyst BD20 catalyst.
“With BayFAME, the new clean FFA-esterification technology developed by Bayer Technology Services based on the Dow Amberlyst BD20 catalyst, our customers will be able for the first time to turn FFA-containing feedstock into FAME (fatty acid methylester) without worrying about yield loss, acids and waste,” says Dr. Susanne Mueller, head of Engineering Biomass Conversion Bayer Technology Services. “Whether customers want to use a specific feedstock like different types of animal fat, used cooking oil, trap grease, jatropha, 100 weight percent FFA, or want to achieve a maximum flexibility in feedstock, we have the solution to get the competitive advantage and flexibility to succeed in a world of volatile oil and raw material prices.”
The multi-stage concept offers a flexible process design, which ensures that feedstocks with any FFA content up to 100 weight percent can be processed with an optimum yield and minimum manufacturing costs. For low FFA concentrations, a single reaction stage will sufficiently reduce the FFA concentration to a level as low as 0.1 weight percent, and a three-stage process will cover the complete spectrum up to 100 weight percent FFA.
The BayFAME esterification process can be easily tied-in between the oil pretreatment and the transesterification units of a conventional biodiesel process. The pretreated oil will be directly fed together with dry methanol into the first esterification reactor stage. After the last reaction stage, the FFA initially contained in the feedstock will be converted to FAME, and the resulting product stream can be further processed in a conventional transesterification unit to convert the triglycerides into FAME, as well.
For more information, visit www.bayertechnology.com or www.dowwatersolutions.com.
Bayer Corp. and The Dow Chemical Co. are CP 50 companies. To view the CP 50 list, visit: http://www.chemicalprocessing.com/cp50.
