Good to know someone out there is doing some good science. Anyone working on the alcoholysis/transesterification step?
Also, another thing that we did to meet product specifications was "blend and send". Making alot of base material the quick and dirty way, and blending in some super high grade stuff, performing analysis along the way until we met the base product spec. The end results varied, so we came up with different product names for the same product, the only difference was how good it was after the blending. This stratagy might help in recovering batches that are slightly sub-par. --- In biofuel@yahoogroups.com, Walt Patrick <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > At 09:39 PM 11/17/03 +0000, Mike wrote: > >The acid/base catalysis used for biofuel production looks like 1940's > >chemistry - 55 gallon drums, KOH, etc. The polymer industry, > >specifically polymer polyols to make urethanes used this type of > >chemistry. I know this because I worked at one of the top urethane > >suppliers R&D process development group in the mid 90's. We were > >reacting ethylene oxide and propylene oxide to make polymer polyols, > >similar Sn2 chemistry. > > Boy that brings back memories of ethoxylating cellulose back in the 70's, > back before the oil embargo and the price of ethylene oxide tripled. > > >Is anyone on the list looking into post-WW II chemistry as a method > >for producing biofuels? > > Yup. We're very excited about building a micro plant to use developments > made in the late 90's in the catalytic synthesis of methanol from H2 and CO. > > For those not familiar with the developments, the old way of condensing > methanol on zinc oxide has been around for almost a century now. The > problem with the old route is that the reaction is exothermic, and since > you're reacting a gas on a solid catalyst, the reactor has to have a large > thermal mass or else you're going to burn up your catalyst. > > In the late 90's, there was a break through in which they ground up the > catalyst into a powder, and then made it into a slurry with mineral oil. > That created a thermal buffer which allowed the reactor to be more > efficient, and way easier to control. Google "liquid process methanol" for > more info. > > Recently, there's been an additional break through developed by Mahajan in > which two co-catalysts are used to synthesize methanol at 150C and 100 psi, > with the added bonus that the reaction is much more forgiving of having CO2 > in the feed gas. This process is so efficient that there's no need to run > the feed gas through the reactor more than once. > > Another nifty development, albeit non-catalytic, involves striking an arc > through a water/carbon slurry and generating a fairly clean form of syngas > [H2 and CO]. > > Lots of exciting stuff happening. > > Walt ------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor ---------------------~--> Buy Ink Cartridges or Refill Kits for your HP, Epson, Canon or Lexmark Printer at MyInks.com. Free s/h on orders $50 or more to the US & Canada. http://www.c1tracking.com/l.asp?cid=5511 http://us.click.yahoo.com/mOAaAA/3exGAA/qnsNAA/FGYolB/TM ---------------------------------------------------------------------~-> Biofuel at Journey to Forever: http://journeytoforever.org/biofuel.html Biofuels list archives: http://archive.nnytech.net/index.php?list=biofuel Please do NOT send Unsubscribe messages to the list address. To unsubscribe, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
